Unbeating Heartache
by Kolie
Summary: Ever since his birth, life has been hell for one Shindou Shuichi. Plagued by preternatural powers and unable to remember his past, he seeks help from the only person who can give it to him...a vampire and his kind's worst enemy...
1. Prologue: The Boy

Yup…it's me again. This is just a short little test chapter thingy to see how many people actually like it. If ya'll do end up liking it, I'll continue, but make sure you tell me or you won't see anymore. I've actually taken the time and done research and all that shit to make it seem realistic. Plus, I have too much time on my hands and my morbidity has kicked in and I got a sudden interest in vampires and stuff…

Oh yeah…thanks so much to Rei-chan for giving me the idea for the title of this fic. I know that it's not the same fic, but it fit this one too. Thank you so much! _glomps_…

**Disclaimer: **After many, many failed attempts, I still don't own _Gravitation_…

**Prologue**  
**The Boy**

The sky was dark and the moon and stars were shining brightly above when the blonde hoped out his window, landing gracefully on the sidewalk below. The call was strong tonight, too loud for him to ignore as he had for the past week, and he finally succumbed to the beautiful choir of voices. But he didn't want to believe that the call had been the reason for his sudden re-interest in the night. He was too strong willed, too stubborn to let himself believe that. He'd been needing to meet with his brother, anyway.

Pausing only briefly to fix his leather coat, the man jumped up and flashed out of view for a brief second before reappearing on the roof of the building next door. He smirked quietly before jumping into the air again, disappearing then reappearing on the next roof.

Somewhere between the fifth and eighth roof, the blonde's stomach growled and he stopped, rubbing at it in aggravation. It _had_ been a while since he last ate, hadn't it? But how long ago? A week? Two? He couldn't remember, but he was glad that he hadn't shriveled up yet. It would have been bad for his image.

Hoping that his younger sibling wouldn't mind if he showed up late, but not really caring, he jumped down into a dark alleyway to wait for something suitable enough to satisfy his tastes.

Finally, after what felt to be an eternity of bored waiting, a beautiful girl just in her twenties walked by. The blonde smiled and stepped out of the shadows.

"Excuse me, miss," he asked, his voice as sultry as ever.

The girl stopped abruptly and swung her head around, her beautiful brunette curls bouncing violently, and she looked at him with bright blue eyes.

"Y-yes?" she asked, a sudden blush making her look even prettier. Damn, she was arousing more than one need inside of him now.

"Could you please tell me the time? I seem to have forgotten my watch at home." He smiled seductively and he saw her eyes go blank. Pretty face but an open mind, she was definitely not his type, but he was hungry.

"Of course." Now her voice was as emotionless as her eyes and he drew her effortlessly into the shadows. "It's twelve-thirty in the morning."

"Thank you," he said, smiling once again and pushed her hair gently over he shoulder, exposing the perfect skin of the girl's neck. "But why is a girl as stunning as you out so late?"

"Because I went out with friends," she said as the blonde moved down, placing his lips on her neck. "What's your name, anyway?"

"That doesn't matter. You won't remember me anyway."

The girl sighed, almost as in grief, and tilted her head a little to the right, exposing more of her neck. The blonde nipped and sucked at the peachy flesh gently, relishing in the little moans he extracted from the girl's throat. He reached down with his other hand, wrapping it around her waist to draw her close, before barring his fangs and biting down. The sweet, coppery taste of fresh blood filled the blonde's mouth and he drank until satisfied. By the time he was done, the girl was a little paler but strong enough to walk on her own. Satisfied, he carefully liked the two small wounds and watched them scarlessly heal before stepping back.

"Thank you, miss," he said with that same smile. "I trust that you won't remember me or anything that happened here?"

The girl shook her head, her eyes still blank and her curls still bouncing. "Oh, no! I have a terrible memory. It'll probably be gone by morning." She laughed shrilly and the blonde winced, his second need dying quickly.

He bowed quickly, briefly, and walked deeper into the shadows before jumping to the top of one of the buildings. He stayed for a second, watching as the girl's senses returned, and she returned to the sidewalk and disappeared into the late night crowd.

The blonde adjusted his trench coat once more and returned to the his roof jumping, only stopping when he saw that part he had agreed to meet his brother at come into view. He saw a flash of pale skin and already knew that his brother was there and waiting. Dammit! And now he would nag him for showing up late.

The blonde jumped down to the ground and walked to rest of the way on the sidewalk so his brother wouldn't see him. After a quick walk, he entered the small park and walked, soundlessly, up to his brother.

"Nice try, Bro," the younger sibling said, turning around with a smile.

The blonde scowled and leaned his back against the nearest tree. "Do you have to ruin all of my fun?"

The raven-haired boy nodded and laughed. "It's my job, isn't it?"

"Being annoying was never in any job description that I read," he scowled, his arms across his chest.

The boy laughed and lightly punched his brother's arm, which resulted in a much harder punch from his brother.

"Aniki!" the boy pouted, rubbing at his arm. "Why do you have to be so mean to me?"

"It's my job, isn't it?" the blonde mocked.

The boy scowled and narrowed his eyes at his brother. "I really hate you sometimes. You know that, right?"

The blonde smiled and the boy relaxed a little. It was usually a good thing when the other man smiled and it made his features look less harsh…younger, even though he was technically only twenty-two.

"I know," the blonde said, "but can we please get this over?"

"Fine, I didn't want to spend time with you either," the younger one grumbled to himself.

The older man sighed and shook his head. He hated when his younger brother got in one of his pouty moods because there was no way to get him out but to play his little games. And he really wasn't in the mood for games tonight.

"I don't have time for your games, Tatsuha. I have business to attend to so tell me why you wanted to see me so I can go on my way," the blonde muttered through clenched teeth.

"Fine, it's about you and you finding a host."

The blonde sighed and dropped his head, gritting his teeth slightly. "When will Father get that through his thick skull? I don't want to be tied down so I don't want a host."

"It's been nearly a hundred years, Eiri. You're going to need one sooner or later or you'll die."

"We _can't_ die, Tatsuha."

"You're a fledgling, Eiri, just as I am, and the ancient ones are going around killing ones like us like there's not tomorrow. Only those with hosts have lived because they proved to have the strength and stamina to bite a mortal more than three times without it turning into a vampire. Even then, their powers were restricted, and we all know how much you love abusing those."

"As long as I have fresh blood, I'll be fine," the blonde growled and started to walk away, but his brother latched onto his wrist. "Let me go, Tatsuha."

"What will you do if you forget that you've already bitten a person twice? Three bites and we'll have another fledgling on our hands, and you'll have to train it and make sure the Elders don't get to it. Training a newbie is worse having a host. You do know that, don't you?"

The blonde tore his arm out of his brother's grip and whipped around to face the raven-haired boy. He opened his mouth to say something, but a new voice, too cheery for being after midnight, filled their ears. The brother's glanced at each other uneasily and jumped into trees to hide.

A yawn and then. "Aw, man, Hiro. I'm so exhausted!" The shortest one said as the two people came into view. The speaker had vibrant pink hair and a small, lithe body, almost like a woman. He wore tight leather pants and a button up white dress shirt with a black chocker collar around his neck.

The one called Hiro chuckled. He was a tall, brawny young man with long auburn hair that was tied back into a ponytail. He had a harsh, but soft, looking face with cat-like eyes, and was dressed in a pair of baggy blue jeans and a tee-shirt. "You should be after spending half the night dancing in the bar, Shu."

The one called Shu looked at his friend and scowled. "You say that like you think that I'm a whore, Hiro."

The auburn-haired man shrugged. "Hey, did you expect me to lie to you?"

Shu growled and jumped on the taller man's back, showing his tight ass off to the two vampires hiding in the trees. It took all that he had for the blonde not to moan loudly. Oh, how he wanted to squeeze that ass.

Soon enough, the younger man had his friend on the ground and was straddling his hips, his hands planted on the ground on either side of the auburn-haired man's head. The boy bent down, his lips now so close to his friend's that the blonde thought for sure that they were going to kiss. The blonde moaned inside his head.

'_Don't do it!'_

The boy shot up and gazed around him wildly, his eyes lingering on the tree where the blonde hid before searching the rest of the park. Hiro's eyes narrowed and he put a hand under Shu's chin, forcing the boy to make eye contact.

"What did you see, Shuichi?" he asked, concern layering his voice. It seemed that this wasn't the first time something like this had happened.

The boy rolled off his friend and onto the grass beside him, closing his eyes. "I saw…a blonde guy and he said something about not doing something."

"Are you sure that was all?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, that was it."

Hiro sighed. "Normally your visions give us more than that. Are you positive that was it?"

"Yes, I'm positive, Hiro!" the boy said in exasperation. "Why would I lie to you when you're the only one who believed me when I told you?"

Hiro sighed again and stood up after his friend. "I'm sorry, Shu. It's just that nothing's come up lately and I'm starting to get nervous. You've never gone this long without something important."

"Don't you think I know that, Hiroshi?" the boy all but yelled, almost sounding as if he were on the verge of tears. "I was starting to think that I actually am crazy like everyone thinks and that it was all just a dream."

"You're not crazy, Shuichi. You have a gift that we use to help people."

The blonde watched as the boy's body shook violently. What in the hell were they talking about? Did the boy have some kind of preternatural powers? The other man walked over to his friend and pulled him into a tight hug.

"I know that the visions all but drive you mad, but you can't stop them. If there was a way to help you accept them easier I would tell you and help you in a heartbeat but I've looked everywhere. Not even any of the witches in the shops downtown understand what you have," he said. "But they, like me, know that you are blessed and that you weren't just given this power. You were born with it and you were born to do good with it."

Slowly, the shudders calmed and the boy just stood in his friend's embrace, leaving the late night park in an eerie silence. That was until he decided to speak.

"I know one way I can escape it," the blonde just barely heard the boy mumble.

The auburn-haired one scowled deeply. "Don't say that, Shuichi. That's taking the coward's way out."

The boy chuckled. "And why not, Hiro? I'm a freak that sees and hears things in my head. Everyone look!" He jumped away from his friend and turned around, his arms in the air to present himself to the world. "Look at the freak! Maybe he'll save your life one day but you won't tell him thank you for it because you'll run in terror after you see him!"

The other just looked sadly at his friend's back as the boy collapsed onto the ground, sobs racking his body.

"I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die," the boy chanted, his voice getting louder with every repeated phrase. The blonde couldn't see the boy's face since his head was hung his hair was in his face, but he knew that he was crying. It didn't take much to see into the heads of mortals, especially ones in danger.

"Shuichi, please don't do this!" Hiro begged, falling down next to his friend with an arm around his shoulder. "Come on, let's go home so you can get some sleep and sleep everything off, okay?"

The boy's head snapped up and he turned his tear streaked face to his friend. "You can go ahead," he muttered. "I know where to find it." The other opened his mouth to disagree but the boy interrupted him. "I have a key and it's late. No one's going to hurt me because I'm a freak, remember? They never see the real me, they see the…the _thing_ underneath my skin."

The other sighed and hung his head, closing his eyes.

"I wish I could help you, Shu," he said as he stood up.

"But you can't," the boy whispered. "No one can."

The auburn-haired man sighed and turned away. "I'll see you at home," he muttered and walked off.

The blonde scowled and watched as the taller man walked off. How could he leave someone who seemed to be unstable and suicidal alone in the middle of a park around hundreds of extremely tall buildings?

'_Baka.'_

He watched as the boy stiffened and, even though he wasn't looking up, he knew that he had his ears open and was listening for any approaching noises. When nothing came, the boy screamed and buried his hands in his hair.

"Get the fuck out of my head!" the boy screamed in agony and collapsed onto the ground, sobbing. "Go away and leave me alone."

He sounded so pitiful and soon after he collapsed he had cried himself to sleep. Checking the boy's mind to make sure that he was indeed asleep, the blonde jumped from the tree and was soon followed by his brother.

"What in the hell just happened here?" Tatsuha asked, his eyes locked on the slumbering form of the small man.

The blonde took a step toward the body. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out," he said, but his brother latched onto his wrist again.

"What do you think you're doing? You can't take him back with you! No mortal is to know where you lie when the sun rises."

The blonde growled. That boy and his complete devotion to the rules, he needed to learn to have some fun once in a while.

"I'm taking him home and I'm going to let him sleep. You act like I'm going to let him sleep in my room so he'll wake up and see an ice cold and apparently dead body next to him." The blonde shook his head. "He already thinks he's crazy. Do you really think that would make him feel any better?"

The raven-haired boy opened his mouth to reply but the blonde had already lifted the boy into his arms and was running away.

'_Just be careful, Eiri. Please,'_ his brother sent with telepathy.

'_Don't worry. I'll be fine.'_

His brother didn't respond and the blonde made the rest of the trip in silence, the slumbering bundle of the boy curled against his chest. The blonde leaped into the air and vanished out of view, not appearing again until he and the boy were safely tucked inside his extremely old house. The trip had taken longer than before because he returned to his home instead of his apartment in the city, but the boy still hadn't woken up.

He carried the boy to one of his many guest rooms and laid him out on the large bed, making the room safe from the boy with his magic. Once his deed was done, he turned and looked at the sleeping form, his normally cold eyes softening at what he saw. He was so peaceful when he slept and one would never know about the visions and sounds that plagued him while he was awake unless they understood him.

'_You aren't a freak, beautiful one; you're just lost and confused. Let me help you.'_

"Death?" the boy whispered slowly and the man sighed, saddened.

'_No, love. I am not death. I am the life after death.'_

The boy sighed and snuggled into the bed to get more comfortable. "No good."

The blonde sat on the edge of the bed and carefully brushed the boy's bangs out of his face. He moved his fingers down and traced his cheek down to his chin and then up to his lips, which he touched briefly.

'_You are an angel.'_

"No."

'_Yes, you are. You just need help spreading your wings.'_

"Angels heal; they don't bring pain and fear."

The blonde sighed. He knew one kind of angel that did bring pain and fear and death but he didn't want to give the boy that life…no, death. He wouldn't be able to handle it.

'_You are a healer. You help those of whom you see in your premonitions and make sure they live through their hardships, even while you are suffering. You are an angel.'_

The boy sighed and said no more in that groggy voice. Smiling slightly, the blonde began to feel that slight tingle that would transform into an unbearable burning if he wasn't sealed in his room soon.

'_We'll meet again when the moon rises.'_

The boy just moaned quietly and the blonde left the room, sealing the door as he did so the boy wouldn't be able to escape.

There were so many things that he wanted to know about the boy. Where did he come from? What was he? Who and what gave him the powers he possessed? The power in the boy's mostly violet aura was astounding and, as much as he didn't want to believe it, inhuman. The power was dangerous and he knew that the boy would be able to ignite the blood that flowed through his veins if he really wanted to. Then that would be the end of him. Well…except for ashes, hair, and the clothes that he had been wearing, all held together by a little bit of grease.

The blonde finally made it to his room and closed and locked the door. He went to all the windows and pulled down the black-out shades so no sunlight whatsoever would enter the room, and went to his bed to pull the blankets back. He didn't need the sheets and comforter, but he loved the feel of the silk beneath his skin and the warmth that radiated around him, even while it didn't penetrate into his bones.

After stripping out of everything but his boxers, the blonde climbed between the sheets and pulled the blankets under his chin. The tingling had gone away so he couldn't tell how high the sun had risen outside his window, but sleep began to overcome is mind soon after.

Just before falling into unconsciousness, he sent his conscience out to the boy and entered his mind. Nothing but blackness in there, but now protection wasn't far away from the boy's side, even if the blonde couldn't go out in the sun.

TBC?…

A/N: Okay, this is completely different than what I originally wanted. When I finished the first draft it was happy and only three pages long. Now…it's angsty and three and a half pages long…_sighs_…Oh, well. I like this better now that I've changed it. And I know that Shuichi is OOC, but, if you read "ILaH", what did you expect? He won't continually be out of character but he will mostly. Sorry, but wouldn't you act a little weird if you had premonitions and could hear vampires talking to you? I would… And I know that Yuki is OOC too, but even after reading only three of the books in the "Vampire Chronicles", I've discovered that vampires are more romantic and sensuous creatures that rival Yuki's stoic personality, so I changed it. I like this Yuki better, and, even though he's got the personality change, he's not gonna play easy to get so I hope that makes some of ya happy…

Okay…I must go. If you like this and want more…remember to review!…


	2. Chapter One: The Meeting

Yay…I'm glad that y'all like this so far because I was worried. I really like it so it makes me happy to know that I'm not the only one…

Also, I've decided to make this a crossover with the Vampire Chronicles series by Anne Rice. If you've never read the books, don't worry. I'm just using the characters, not the plot, so you shouldn't be confused…

Now, for the first time probably ever, I'm gonna leave it at this and let ya'll get to the chapter which I have to completely start over. Fun, fun, fun…

Notes: Sections separated from the rest of the writing with …… are dream sequences… Alrighty, I think that's all for now…

**Disclaimer:** If you've read anything that I've written, you know that it's not mine…

**Chapter One**

**The Meeting**

Vibrant amethyst eyes opened slowly, taking their time in absorbing the bright sunlight that flooded the room that their owner was asleep in. Once they were adjusted, they grew to about two times their normal size and their owner shot up in the bed, looking wildly around the room.

This wasn't his room! Hell, this wasn't even his house! Where was he? What had happened last night? The boy ransacked his mind, searching for his memory. The last thing he remembered was Hiro leaving him. And the vision…the vision and that damn voice! The boy growled. Everything after that was black. He must've passed out and someone abducted him. He lifted the covers and looked underneath them. Well, he was still fully dressed and his ass didn't hurt, so he guessed that the person hadn't tried to take advantage of him, but still! Who had the nerve to take him away? Who would want him?

'_I do.'_

A terrified scream tore out of the boy's throat and he clutched his head in his hands. "Go away!" he yelled and pounded his palms into his forehead. "Leave me alone!"

The voice didn't respond but the boy was still prepared to hear it again. He had to be prepared for everything these days. The voices, the visions, life…it was all just too damn frustrating.

Sighing, the boy pulled his hands away from his head and carefully swung his legs over the edge of the bed, hopping down to the floor gracefully. He quickly walked over to the door, his big boots clunking loudly on the hardwood floor, and pulled the doorknob. It didn't turn at first so the boy tried again, and it still didn't turn. He jiggled the handle harshly and found himself locked inside. He went over to the window and tried to lift it, but found that it was locked. He looked for a latch to unlock it, but found none. He threw his fist at the glass with all his force and his fist just bounced off it. The boy stared between his hand and the window in disbelief.

'_All the exits are sealed. You're not leaving until I can speak with you, face-to-face.'_

The boy stared wildly around the room and his eye caught on his reflection in a mirror hanging on the wall. Something was different, but he would've never noticed it if it wasn't for his preternatural gifts. His aura was a different color. It wasn't the usual violet, but it was almost a red-violet. There was only way for his aura change to colors that didn't reflect his mood. Another presence was residing within his body.

'_I don't know who or what you are or how you're doing this, but get the fuck out of my head.'_

A small chuckle echoed throughout his mind. _'Why are you talking so harshly to the person who saved your life?'_

It was his turn to laugh. _'Yeah, and what a life you saved. Why didn't you just leave me to die? I wouldn't have argued it.'_

Silence filled his mind but he knew, wherever the owner of the other voice was, the man was thinking.

'_Do not talk to me of death and suicide, my fallen angel. You are a much stronger person than that.'_

The boy scowled. _'Your fallen angel?'_ The boy laughed. _ 'You don't even know me.'_

'_No? I've found out plenty in my time spent roaming the empty void of your mind as the day has passed,…Shindou Shuichi.'_ The boy gasped, and the voice chuckled. _'But I'm still curious as to how you got your amazing abilities. That, I couldn't seem to find.'_

'_Get out of my head!'_ the boy demanded. "Get out of my fucking head!" he yelled.

'_As you wish, love,'_ the voice said then diminished.

Slowly, the boy's aura returned to its normal blue and he sighed. "What in the hell was that?" he whispered. He had never had another psychic being hack into his mind just to "look around". No, it was always to find information on how he could be destroyed or diverted from helping innocents. "What do you want from me?" he muttered and slumped down onto the bed, lying on his back with his legs dangling over the edge.

The man wanted to find out how he had gotten his powers, but how could the man know when he didn't even remember himself? He barely even remembered his past or his parents. Small snippets came back to him once in a while but they would be gone almost as soon as he remembered. It was almost as if someone had put a charm on his mind to restrain him from remembering. But he hadn't just been born with the powers, he knew that much. No, someone had done this to him. Why? He didn't know, but would pay any price to find out.

The boy sighed and ran his hands over his face and into his vibrant hair. How long had he spent sleeping? He searched the room for a clock but didn't find one. Well, it had been around one when he and Hiro had started their argument. He could look at the sky to see what time it was, but without knowing what time the man found him it was useless. He yawned. However long it was, he was tired again.

Sighing, the boy climbed back underneath the white silk sheets and black comforter, curling in a ball on his side. He stared at the wall for what seemed like forever before sleep finally overcame his senses and he was carried into the world of dreams…

…The night was dark and the boy was running, the fridged winter air freezing the tears on his face and the limbs exposed by his ripped clothing. He threw a quick glance over his shoulder, but found that it was useless. He couldn't see anything in this alleyway except for the growing sliver of moonlight ahead of him. The exit…that was all that mattered.

The boy blocked out his own footsteps as best as he could and opened his ears, listening for the footsteps of the ones following him. _Clunk, clunk, clunk…_ They weren't far behind now. The boy pushed himself harder and ran as fast as he could. He had to get away. There was no telling what those people were going to do to him if they caught him.

The light was growing larger and larger and, finally, the boy emerged into the bright moonlight. The looked around frantically for something to hide him, but, just like every other town he'd been chased into and out of, it was abandoned. The footsteps were getting closer. The boy closed his eyes and took off in one direction, hiding behind a dumpster next to one of the town's small, empty shops.

The footsteps were exiting the alleyway now and the boy closed his eyes against them, tears streaming down his face as he saw the shadows moving beyond his closed eyelids. Eventually, the footsteps died off. The boy hadn't realized how many people were following him until then. He had to get away fast or he would be dead for sure.

Cautiously, the boy stood and tiptoed out from behind the dumpster. He looked around and, when he found no one was there, he took off running back down the alleyway. He had finally gotten away. He was free to roam and do what he pleased; although, he still had to be make sure that he used a pseudonym and changed his appearance. He ran his hands through his dirty blonde hair. What color should he dye it? Red, brown, black? No! He'd dye it…

Before he had a chance to think the color, the boy was tackled to the ground from behind.

"You didn't think you were going to get away from me that easily, did you?" a familiar voice growled in his ear. He could feel the man's breath against his neck and he cringed. This wasn't going to turn out the way he wanted it to. "Answer my question, beautiful one," the man growled and grabbed a handful of the boy's hair in his hand, pulling back to lift his face from the hard ground.

"A-apparently so, Master," he boy managed to say, despite the lump in his throat.

A smirk from above and behind him and the weight was lifted from the boy's back. The boy took a great, gasping breath, and tried his best to suppress a squeal as he was lifted from the ground by his hair.

"Stand up and follow me," the man said, slapping heavy cuffs onto the boy's wrists.

"Yes, Master," the boy said ashamedly.

The man that the boy loved and hated started to walk in the direction the boy was trying to get away from and the boy followed, the heavy chains clapping against each other as he walked.

The boy sighed. His life was hell. When he was four years old, his parents died in a house fire. He didn't know how he survived; all he knew was that he was given to distant relatives that didn't care for him. A year later, they turned him over to the man who the boy had immediately been told to call "Master" because that's what he was. He was the master and the boy was his slave. Since then, he had lived in the man's large house and done whatever the man asked of him. Every time he tried to escape, he was caught and given to the townspeople for punishment. They could do whatever they wanted with him, just as long as they didn't hurt his face or break any of his bones. He was too invaluable to his master to not be able to be put to work. He may have looked like he a few years younger than he actually was, but that didn't mean that his master didn't work him any less hard.

They walked out of the alley and into the small town plaza of shops and the boy was relieved to see that none of the others were there. The man seemed to sense the relief from the boy because he chuckled.

"Floggings from them won't be your punishment this time, love. No, I have bigger plans for you." The boy gulped at his master's words. That could only mean one thing… "You have disobeyed me for the last time, my Shuichi."

Tears that the boy had been struggling to hold back fell down his face, but the man showed no sympathy. The boy should have known that this would come sooner or later, the man tended to mentally fuck him whenever the boy was in his presence anyway. It had all just been a matter of time.

The man stopped in the middle of the street and looked around him…assessing the area, the boy guessed. After a while the man shrugged and headed into one of the empty buildings, grabbing onto the boy's chains so he couldn't run away.

The boy wouldn't let himself cry. He lifted his head high and took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for what was to come.

The shop that he was pulled into was small and the windows were covered in dirt and grime. Between those and his master locking the door, the boy's pride lifted a few notches. At least he would be able to be defiled in private.

Before he had time to react, the boy was lifted on his feet and thrown onto the counter. Pain shot up and down his spine but he did his best to ignore it, gritting his teeth against the pain. He wouldn't scream, he wouldn't cry, he wouldn't give his master that satisfaction.

He felt cold hands grip onto his ankles and he was spun around so that his butt was just touching the edge of the counter. The cold hands moved up to his torn shirt and slowly ripped away what was left. The man began to toy with the boy's nipples, erect from the cold, and chuckled.

"Now, I guess I won't have to feel bad for this," the man said, bending down to nip and suck at the boy's neck.

"You weren't going to anyway," the boy said. Only he was brave enough to back talk his master.

The man chuckled. "Yes, you're right."

The cold hands moved down to the waistband of the boy's pants and the man unbuttoned them, sliding them down the boy's thighs slowly and carefully. Now he was completely exposed and there was nothing he could do about it, nothing he could do to stop what was going to happen next.

His master lifted the boy into a seated position on the counter and kneeled on the floor, going down on the boy before he had a chance to struggle. The man swallowed around the boy's dick and the boy balled his hands into fists at his side, digging his fingernails into his palms to divert his attention from the pleasure to the pain. He wouldn't do it, he wouldn't do it, he wouldn't…

A moan escaped from the boy's mouth as his master began to bob his head up and down and he buried his hands into the man's hair, pulling at the strands lightly. He threw his head back and moaned again as the man began to swirl his tongue around the tip and then took him in deeper than before. A strange sensation began to build in the boy's abdomen and, before he knew what was happening, he released into his master's mouth, screaming out in terror.

The man pulled back and smiled up at the boy. "You taste good, my beautiful one," he said and then kissed the boy roughly. The boy struggled to get away but the man had his hands balled into his brown hair and it hurt to move.

The man pulled away a few seconds later and slowly trailed his hands down the boy's lithe chest and stomach, pushing him back into a lying position before spreading his thighs slowly.

The boy began to bang his head roughly onto the counter. Harder and harder he hit it, knowing that it couldn't be healthy, but he didn't care. He heard his master chuckle and felt the tip of his penis at his entrance and his dam broke. Tears began to fall down his face and he began to hit his head as hard as he could. He felt the cold hands grip his thighs and then felt the man push himself inside him. The boy screamed out in pain and passed out…

Bright eyes snapped open and a pink-haired boy shot up on the bed, screaming. It took him awhile to remember who and where he was. In a flood, the memories came back and he gasped. Why was he still alive? What had happened after the rape? Who was the boy that had been raped? Was it him? There were so many holes in his memory, and it frustrated the hell out of him.

The boy buried his face in his hands and let himself cry. He swore that he would never let himself fall under the control of a person after that happened, but now he was locked in an anonymous person's home. And all because he was weak and had passed out from hearing the voices. Sobs violently racked the boy's body and he threw his head back.

"Why can't I ever get what I want!" he screamed, starting when he heard a chuckle from somewhere in the moonlit room. "Where are you?" he yelled, preparing himself for an attack. "Show yourself!"

"As you wish," the voice replied and a tall blonde dressed in black slacks and a black silk shirt stepped out of the shadows.

The boy's eyes grew wide in recognition. "You!" he exclaimed. "You…you…"

The blonde smiled innocently. "Me."

The boy growled and launched himself off the bed and at the blonde, who moved out of the way with such speed that the boy didn't see him. He landed on his stomach on the ground and quickly stood up, scanning the room for any signs of the blonde man. None.

"Looking for me?"

The boy gasped and ran across the room to the window, turning around to see the blonde smirking at him from a few steps behind where he had been standing.

"You're not human, are you?" the boy asked, slouching to the ground when the blonde shook his head.

"No, love, I am not. It wouldn't be fair for me to lie to you when I know all of your secrets."

The boy narrowed his eyes and examined the man's aura for any hints of unnaturalness. Dark green with a few spots of indigo, yellow-orange, and…violet and dark red! The boy's eyes widened and he took a step back, his butt ramming into the windowsill behind him. Slowly, he raised a shaking hand and pointed at the man.

"What are you?" he asked, his voice quavering slightly. "What in the hell are you?"

The blonde smirked seductively. "Now, now, love. I can't tell you that, for I would have to kill you. And you are too beautiful a creature to be killed at the hands of something of the likes of me. But, for you, I am a savior of sorts."

A scowl crossed the boy's face and he sent his conscience out to the man, poking and prying at his head to try and get it to open, but it wasn't even worth the try. Whatever this man was, he was powerful and he boy knew that he was dangerous.

"A savior?" He laughed out loud. "What do you want with me? Why did you bring me here if you don't mean to kill me?"

A small frown crossed the man's face but nothing showed in his eyes, and still no access to his mind. "Can I not have a little fun, beautiful one?"

The boy snarled. "Stop calling me that!" he screamed and clutched his head. "Stop it!"

"Why not? It's the truth, so why shouldn't I speak it."

The boy lifted his head and scowled. "Just because you've wandered through my head all night doesn't mean that you know me!" he sneered.

Before he could prepare himself, the blonde had crossed the room and wrapped his arms around the boy in a tight embrace. The boy screamed and struggled to get away, but the man's arms were like steel bars and he wouldn't let go.

"Geroff of me, dammit!" the boy yelled, pounding the man's chest. "Let me go!"

'_What has made you like this, beautiful one? Why are you so angry?'_

The boy tensed at hearing the voice in his head and looked up into the blonde's eyes…deep, sexy amber eyes. He shook his head. No, he couldn't let himself get attached. He refused it.

"What good'll it do you when you find out…," he paused for a second then smirked, "…_savior_?"

The blonde chuckled. "Because I want to help you, Shindou Shuichi. I want to help you forget your past and help you live."

The boy gasped quietly and narrowed his eyes at the man. "How do you know that something happened to me in my past?" he asked. "I can barely even remember what happened to me."

The blonde chuckled again. _'I have powers that mere mortals could only dream of.'_

Another gasp from the boy and then… "Mortals? You mean to tell me that you're immortal? You _can't _die?" The blonde shook his head, a saddened look in his eyes. The boy looked at him closely and smiled softly. "You call me the beautiful one," he said, reaching up and brushing back a few stray locks of the man's hair, "but do you say the same about yourself?"

The blonde shook his head.

"Some people may look beautiful on the outside, but it's what's on the inside that matters," he whispered. "I have lived too much of a bloodied life to be considered beautiful."

The boy smiled and then scowled, sick with himself. What in the hell was he doing? Flirting with his captor? The boy looked down toward the ground and closed his eyes. But it was so hard not to. With his beautiful gold eyes and pale skin and…the boy sighed…he was just sexy.

The man released one arm and lifted the boy's chin gently. "What's wrong, love?" he asked.

Tears blurred his view of the blonde's face but he wanted to believe that the same amount of concern that was in the man's voice shone in his eyes.

"I can't…I just…can't," the boy sobbed, clutching tightly to the black silk of the man's shirt.

The blonde sighed and gathered the boy into his arms again, running his fingers through the pink locks.

'_What can't you do, angel. What's wrong?'_

The calm and soothing voice just made the boy's tears come faster. He felt the man's hand under his chin again, he felt his face lifted upwards, he felt the man's lips capture his in a chaste kiss.

The boy's eyes snapped open and he found himself drowning in deep pools of amber. He sighed into the kiss and obliged when he felt the man run his tongue along his lower lip, opening his mouth to allow him access. He didn't want to get involved in anything, but he soon had his arms wrapped around the man's neck and he was kissing him back. Their tongues did battle, and only when they needed air to breathe did they pull back from each other.

It took a couple of seconds, but the kiss finally registered in the boy's mind and he gasped quietly, touching his lips lightly with his fingers. Slowly, he looked up at the blonde and blushed at the heat and lust shining in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

The blonde chuckled. "For what, love? You haven't done anything wrong."

Now the boy laughed. "Yeah, at least I can feel good about the fact that you made the first move."

The blonde chuckled again. "You seem tired, beautiful one," he whispered. "You need your sleep."

The boy shook his head. "I've slept all goddamn day," he said stubbornly. "I don't think that I'm tired."

But he still swayed a little on his feet as he moved toward the door and would have fallen if the blonde had have been there to catch him.

"Whoa, not tired, are we, love?" the blonde chuckled.

The boy shook his head and pushed the man away lightly. "I'm fine, I just need to get used to using my legs after a day out of commission."

Behind him he knew that the blonde shook his head, but he proceeded on without letting him know that he knew.

'_Smart ass.'_ Okay, maybe he didn't do such a good job.

He heard the blonde chuckle, what he was starting to get used to as a normal response, and shook his head. He crossed to the door and tried the handle, finding it locked. He paused and turned back to the man.

"If the door's locked, how in the hell did you get in here?" he asked.

The blonde just shook his head. "I told you…I have powers that you could only imagine," he said and, with a flick of his wrist, the door was unlocked.

The boy smiled and turned away from the blonde to open the door.

'_When did I ever say that I was a mortal?'_

The boy gave a joking glance back at the blonde and couldn't help but laugh out loud at the surprise that was blatant on the man's face.

"Surprise, surprise," he muttered and walked on down the hallway.

It didn't take long before he got lost in the seemingly never-ending hallways of the gigantic home and, as much as he didn't want to, he called out to the blonde for help. He really did not want to be trapped in this fortress.

A few minutes later, just as he figured, the blonde appeared out of no where.

"Yes, love?"

The boy looked around the corridor to make sure no one else was around and smiled ashamedly at the blonde. "Uh…, can you lead me out?" he asked, scowling when the blonde tried to hold back a smirk.

"Yes, of course," the man said and turned on his heel down the hallway. The boy followed behind quickly. After a while of silence, the man asked a question. "How did you manage to get lost, Shindou Shuichi?"

The boy gaped and stopped in the hallway, spreading his arms and twirling around in a circle when the blonde turned around to look at him in interest.

"How in the hell could I not get lost in this place? It's huge!" he said, and stopped twirling. "Where is _here_ anyway?"

The blonde smirked. "Well, _here_ is a ways out of the town you're used to thriving in."

The boy blanched. "You mean I gotta walk back to Tokyo from here?" He frowned. "Dammit! Were you expecting me to not want to leave or something like that?"

The blonde frowned in an ashamed sort of way. "Or something like that," he muttered.

The boy's heart went out to the man. He was obviously lonely, probably had been for centuries if he was truly immortal like he said he was, but there was just something about him that he didn't' trust.

"You're aura has turned yellow around your heart," the blonde stated sadly. "I'm sorry."

The boy looked up to say something but didn't know what to say. Instead, he focused his eyes on the ground and watched his feet as they walked the rest of the way in silence.

"Here we are," the blonde said after almost five minutes of silence.

The boy couldn't bring himself to look up. "Thank you," he muttered.

The blonde stepped aside to clear the exit so the boy could leave. The boy took the clear space and pulled the heavy oak door open, relishing in the cool breeze that played with the bangs on his forehead. Quickly, the boy turned and stood on his tiptoes, planting a soft kiss on the blonde's cheek, before running out the door.

He was to a small gas station before he stopped running and grabbed the phone to call Hiro. His friend had been worried about him and was extremely glad to hear from him and, of course, he would meet the boy at the gas station to give him a ride home. He didn't ask questions then, which the boy was glad for, but he knew they would come later.

As he took a seat on the bench near the payphone to wait, the boy sent out one message.

'_You have nothing to be sorry for. There are some things that just can't be forgotten, betrayal is one of them.'_

Days went by and neither the boy nor the man saw or communicated with each other. Those days turned to weeks and the boy began to think that it had all been a dream, that the man wasn't real and neither was that kiss or the chemistry that seemed to unconsciously form between the two in that room. He missed the blonde hair, the amber eyes, the body, the way that he made it seem like he had just come out of a seventeenth century novel just by opening his mouth…

His friend had had questions about where he had gone and why he had disappeared to a place so out of the way, but he just said that he needed to get away. He couldn't tell Hiro about the blonde. Ever since the man had found the boy torn and broken on the side of the road in that desolate place, he hadn't trusted anyone but himself alone with the boy.

And what a hell of a profession that boy had picked. He was a bartender in a bar that very closely resembled its American counterpart, Coyote Ugly. Serve alcohol, dance on the bars, sing karaoke in that voice that made the people melt, that was his nightly life. The not-so-innocent bar was hidden away in an innocent alleyway where lost people would be surprised. This version of the bar had a much more intimate appeal to it, offering lap dances, but nothing more.

The boy opened his eyes and stared around the crowded floor below him. Dressed in nothing but tight, short black leather shorts, thigh-high leather boots, and a dark red vest, the boy shook his ass as he danced on the bar, teasing the crowd innocently. He smiled seductively and dipped down, running his hands up his smooth calves and thighs before rotating his hips slowly and turning around. The song playing on the jukebox ended and the crowd moaned slightly as the boy jumped down from the counter, but he didn't care. He was tired and wanted to go home.

"Oi, Pink," a man called. The boy turned around, smiling happily despite his weariness. "Vodka, straight, on the rocks."

The boy nodded and pulled out a glass, adding ice and twirling the bottles artistically as he added the liquor. He slid the man his glass, trying his best to ignore the way he looked at him. He caught sight of the top of his boss's mop of raven curls and ran over to her.

"Artemis," he called. At the sound of his voice and her name, the woman whipped around and smiled brightly at him.

"There you are, Shindou. I've been looking all over this fuckin' place for you!" she said, sounding just as tired as he felt. "You got a call. Table four."

The boy whined. "I'm exhausted, Artemis! I can't even feel my feet."

The woman scowled at him, her green eyes daring him to argue further. "You shouldn't have worn those boots then, should you have?"

The boy sighed and looked down at the ground. "No, Artemis."

He heard the woman smirk and tried his hardest not to scowl. "That's what I thought. Table four, now, Shindou."

The boy sighed again and made his way across the bar, letting his legs lead him to the table unconsciously. He had walked through the crowd so many times that he swore that he could walk it with his eyes closed, but he wasn't about to try.

He found table four in a short time and looked up from the ground, letting his eyes survey the black Armani clad legs and blood red Armani shirt, open at the throat to show off a taught chest. The boy's eyes traveled up to the face and he blanched. Before he could stop himself, he raised his finger and pointed at the man.

"You!" he whispered.

The man smiled. "Me."

The boy's face broke out into a smile before scowling deeply. He took a seat on the man's lap and leaned his head in next to his ear, trying to make it at least look like he was doing his job.

"Where have you been?" he whispered into his ear. "Why haven't you tried to contact me? I thought it was all ju…-"

The man silenced him with a finger on his lips and the boy pulled away quickly, his brow crinkled. The man just smiled that smile that made him melt.

"I can barely even hear myself think in here," he said. "Can we go somewhere else to talk?"

"O-of course," the boy nodded furiously and slid off the man's lap. "Come on."

He grabbed onto the man's hand and pushed and shoved a path for them to follow up to the bar.

"Artemis!" he yelled, waving her toward him when she turned around. It took a few minutes but she finally made it and the boy smiled. "We need to use one of the back rooms, please." He put on his best puppy dog face.

The woman broke out into a smile, both questioning and smart at the same time. "Of course, Shindou." She reached below the counter and pulled out a set of keys. "You know which go to which."

The boy nodded in thanks and pulled the man around the counter and into a hallway closed off by a locked door. The hallway was painted black with different colored black light paint splattered all over the walls, illuminated, of course, by black lights. The boy found the room that he preferred and unlocked the door, letting the man enter before him before sealing them away from the music and bustle of the crowd outside.

The man had taken a seat on the leather couch and watched the boy as he walked up to him, trying too hard to hide the way he watched the boy's hips sway as he walked. The boy smirked and took a seat on the man's lap.

Before the blonde had time to react, the boy captured his lips in a kiss. The man grunted slightly in surprise but then responded by running his tongue along the boy's bottom lip. The boy was more than happy to oblige and he opened his mouth, letting the blonde enter. The blonde searched every corner of the boy's wet cavern and battled with his tongue, wrapping his arms around the boy's waist to pull him closer as the boy wrapped his arms around his neck.

The boy was in heaven. The blonde had a spicy, sensuous sort of smell to him, like incense and cologne, and tasted even better. The boy moaned and whined when the blonde pulled away, a smile on his beautiful face.

"What a change," he said observantly. The boy blushed a deep vermillion and the man's smile grew.

Delicate, pale fingers began to run up and down the boy's chest gently and he shivered, letting his head roll back as the man began to toy with his nipples.

"Why did you come here?" the boy practically moaned.

"I came to see you, my beautiful one. Why else would I come to your place of work?"

"I dunno," the boy moaned, "to taunt me like you're doing now?"

The blonde smirked. "No, I'm sorry, love, but I have come for different reasons than this. Although, I have to say that this is quiet an added bonus."

The boy smiled and looked at the blonde through hazy eyes.

"Why haven't you tried contacting me?" the boy asked, pulling away so he could look the blonde in the eye.

"I tried, love, but your mind was closed off to me. I was under the impression that you weren't waiting."

The boy smiled. "Well, I was."

"I see that now," the blonde smirked.

Before he could react, the blonde lifted the boy and laid him on his back on the couch, covering his body with his own. He kissed the boy's face and down to his neck and then down his chest. The boy was all but screaming—his pink hair covered in droplets of sweat—when the blonde reached the waist line of his pants. Smooth hands ran up and down his inner thighs, teasing the boy seductively.

A bright flash of light passed over the boy's eyes and he blinked in confusion. He looked down at the blonde and saw the man he had had to call his master all that time ago. He screamed and pushed the blonde away, scrambling as far away from him as possible. He put his head in his hands and began to rock back and forth.

"No, no, no…go away, go away," he cried.

"Shuichi, are you okay?" the blonde asked, concern blatant in his voice.

"Don't touch me!" the boy yelled and made himself shrink as much as he could.

He closed his eyes and continued rocking back and forth, memories flooding his mind. Memories of those icy cold, abusive hands, cold blue eyes, and dark brown hair. They were all too much.

'_Calm down, love. Please, calm down. He's not here to hurt you, they are just memories. I'm sorry that I brought them back. I shouldn't have moved so quickly.'_

The boy's breathing calmed slightly and he looked up, seeing the blonde sitting not to close but not to far away from him on the couch.

"I-I'm sorry," he muttered.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," the blonde whispered and moved to his side, embracing him. "I wish I could make all of your memories disappear for you, but I can't. No one knows how to do it."

"No, I'm fine." The memories were starting to fade from the boy's mind and, in an hour's time, he would forget them completely.

"Come on, love, let's go back out into the bar."

The boy nodded and allowed the blonde to lead him out of the room and back out into the hustle and bustle of the bar. They stopped at the bar just long enough for the boy to hand his boss the keys and tell her that he was leaving and then they left.

"Where do you live?" the blonde asked him.

The boy sent him a mental image and they were there in an instant. The pink-haired boy felt completely drained and wanted nothing more than a good night's sleep.

"Thank you," he muttered, his eyes half closed.

The blonde shook his head. "It's the least that I could do."

The boy smiled and kissed the blonde on the cheek again before unlocking the door to his apartment and disappearing inside. He seemed to sleep walk back to his bedroom, and pulled he off his boots and changed into a pair of pajama pants before falling into his bed.

In an instant, sleep overcame his senses and the boy fell into a world of dreams and nightmares.

TBC…

A/N: Okay…how many different times could I have put a lemon in this chapter? _counts _One, two…probably around three times and I didn't. Yay! It would have been too soon anyway…

So…how did ya'll like this chapter? I hope you liked it because it took me forever to come up with an ending that I liked. Now I just need to start the next chapter. Ooo…fun, fun…

Thank ya big-big to: **Lady Ruby, The Amazing Tsu-chan, KageKitsune16, Guren, Red-Mizu, Silverfang0000, Lami-chan, Kaya, Tsugath, Ku-chan, Sammy -.-zzz, cutelilpuppyeyez, animegirl12182, pikapikaryuchan, MC-88, Sutzina Zion, Angelic Scars the bloody angel, Bram, Suzu-kun, whitejackle,** and last but not least **Lenora-chan**. Wow…21 reviews for my first chapter. I can't believe it! Thank y'all so much! I'm glad that you've liked it so far!…

Alrighty…I must go and try to get something done on "ILaH". I'm workin' on it, I promise! Please remember to review and tell me what you like, dislike, and/or want changed. I'm not saying that I'll do it, but I'd really like to know what y'all think…

Ja matta 'til chapter two…


	3. Chapter Two: The Dhampir

WHOA! No, please don't have a heart attack because, yes, this is an update for "Unbeating Heartache"! Your eyes are not deceiving you! _hides under desk to dodge torches and pitchforks_ I am _beyond_ sorry for taking so long to update this but I've got myself in a mess right now of trying to work on four different series simultaneously, so it's really hard to keep track. But…I'm hoping to keep a good and steady pace, but that hasn't gone so well so far…

And, I've changed my mind about the whole "Vampire Chronicles" crossover thingy. I just want to make it straight up _Gravi_, no matter how much funnier or better it would be to add Lestat, Armand, Marius, Mona or any of the others…

Okay…here I go…

**Disclaimer: **After trying to own _Gravitation_ for the past year and failing, I've given up on my dream and will settle with writing horribly depressing fan fics with its characters. SEE! If only you'd just handed it over to me, this and "In Love and Hate" would've never had to happen!…

**Chapter Two  
The Dhampir**

"YOU DID WHAT!" a raven-haired boy practically yelled into his brother's ear. "You have got to be shittin' me!"

"No shit here, Tatsuha," a blonde replied.

"I can't believe that you would just go there, alone and exposed. What if someone knew who you were? What would you have done then?" the man shouted, his hands flailing above his head.

The blonde chuckled and shook his head. "Who was going to know me in a bar full of mortals, Tatsuha?"

"Who wouldn't?" the younger vampire said with a stomp of his foot. "Every vampire in this area knows your name. They would have your head hanging on a wall for a trophy if they ever got the opportunity."

Eiri chuckled again and shoved the teen's comment off with a shrug. "Exactly. _If_ they ever got the opportunity, but I don't think that I have any plans for that to happen very soon."

The raven-haired vampire gaped at his brother and shook his head. "I can't believe you!" he shouted. "I'm surprised that other covens _don't_ have your head on a stake by now with how you enjoy prancing around and showing off and all. It's sickening."

"Oh," Eiri said. "And why is it that?"

In what the blonde knew to be an attempt at infuriating him, Tatsuha retorted with another question of his own. He wasn't prepared, however, for just how uneasy the question would make him.

"Why did you go to that bar, Brother? You've never had any interest in humans before," he said. "At least…not until you met that boy."

Eiri shook his head. "Just because I went out you automatically think that I went to see Shindou?" He threw back his head and laughed. "Little do you know, I actually have taken quite a liking to being around humans. The ways that they live their lives as if there were no tomorrow is very fascinating."

The raven-haired vampire rolled his eyes. "I can't win with you."

The blonde smirked in triumph, but let it fall slack once a small thought wedged its way into the back of his mind.

"What does it matter if I did go to see Shindou, Tatsuha?" The frown on his face only deepened when he saw his brother stiffen at the question.

"No reason," the raven-haired teen muttered, taking a very strange liking to his fingernails.

The blonde chuckled. "I've been with you for a century, Tatsuha. You should know by now that I can tell when you're lying to me."

Silence echoed throughout the study as the younger vampire continued to stare at his fingernails. The blonde sighed and rested the back of his head on the headrest of his chair, closing his eyes. His brother was difficult at times, but Tatsuha always seemed to fall into complete and utter silence whenever he was lying. Eiri knew that it was a defense so the raven-haired man wouldn't let a clue fall past his lips, but it was rather annoying.

Tatsuha sighed and Eiri opened his eyes, watching his brother as he paced back and forth across the room, his footsteps making loud clunking noises against the hardwood floor.

"All I want is for you to answer my question, Brother," the blonde said, frowning when his brother stopped pacing. "I'm not asking for anything more."

"I just don't want you to make the same mistake twice!" Tatsuha groaned and sank down into the chair across from Eiri, his head in his hands.

The blonde sucked in his breath and closed his eyes, dropping his own head into his hands. He should have known that Tatsuha had been lying when he'd said that he'd moved on, but he'd been too happy to find that he finally had a companion to really think it over. That had been over a hundred and seventy years ago. And, yet, here they were.

"Tatsuha-"

"Don't, Eiri. Please," Tatsuha interrupted.

The blonde sighed and opened his eyes to look at his brother. The raven-haired teen's shoulders were shaking, a sign that the blonde had learned to notice if he ever wondered if Tatsuha was crying.

"Tatsuha, you know that I did it for the best."

The raven-haired vampire looked up from his hands, sticky crimson tears running down his face. "You didn't do it for the best. You did it because you were afraid of being alone," he spat.

The blonde narrowed his eyes at his brother. "Maybe I did do it because I was afraid of being alone, but you would have _died_ if I hadn't have done anything, Tatsuha."

"Then you should have let God take me when it had been my time, Eiri, because now there will be no Paradise. There will be no loved ones, no joy, no peace. All that death has in store for us now is an eternity to burn in the flames of Hell so we can repent for every single goddamn one of our sins."

"You had tubercu…"

"Yes, tuberculosis, I'm aware of that. Do you think that I liked being locked in a sanatorium, surrounded by others who had lost their will to live as well? Do you think that I liked the pain that I had to go through every day? Do you think that I liked the fact that dying was the only thing that I could pray for?" Tatsuha asked. "Even so, I would have rather died than been given this curséd life."

"I couldn't stand seeing you in pain, Tatsuha. I could only imagine what you were feeling. Would you have been able to restrain yourself from giving me the Dark Gift had I been the one lying in that sanatorium bed? Would you have hidden the fact that you had a way to cure me of my sickness, and all others for that matter, so I could live a life where I need'nt be afraid of death?" The raven-haired man furrowed his brow. "Because if you would have, God help me, I would have come back and killed you."

Tatsuha dropped his head back into his hands and stared at his knees. Silence fell between the two brothers once again, broken only by the spontaneous sniff that snuck past the raven-haired vampire's lips.

"I'm sorry," Tatsuha muttered after taking a few minutes to compose himself. "I had no right to speak like that to you."

Eiri shook his head and sighed. "No," he said, "I understand what you mean, Tatsuha. But put yourself in my shoes at that time. I _had_ a way to cure you of your sickness and make it so that death would never be able to take you away from me. I gave you the Gift out of blind love."

Tatsuha nodded. "I know," he whispered.

Silence fell between them again. Eiri sighed heavily and rested his head back against his headrest again.

"You didn't feel it, did you?"

"Feel what?" The boy crinkled his brow, and the blonde could feel the holes his grey eyes were practically boring into his head.

"His power. His strength. If he's not a dhampir, he's pretty damn close."

Once the words left his mouth, Eiri regretted ever mentioning it. The revelation just made the boy in the chair across from him fall into another fit of panic.

"A DHAMPIR! What in the hell are you thinking? He could kill us all!"

Eiri nodded. "I'm well aware of that."

"And you're aware of what his kind likes to do to our kind."

"Yes, Tatsuha, I'm aware of it all. I think that he's a dhampir, but I'm not sure that he's tapped into his powers. He can read thoughts, see auras, and send mental messages, but I don't think that he's realized his full potential."

The raven-haired vampire sighed. "And you're aware that he won't be able to control himself when his powers _do_ take hold of him? He could end up killing you without a second thought."

Eiri nodded. "I'm not even sure if he is, Tatsuha. But he has incredibly strong powers. I'm surprised that you couldn't see them in his aura."

The younger vampire turned away with his nose in the air and stood up. "It doesn't matter if he's a dhampir or not!" the boy said, grabbing onto the blonde's shoulders. "Don't you know that? All it takes is a little power and he could kill us all!"

"Not if we can get him on our side," the blonde said with a smile and the boy backed down.

"You mean…he could help us?" The blonde nodded and a small flutter of hope flashed in the boy's eyes before he closed them and started banging his fists into his forehead. "No! It's still too dangerous."

Silence fell between the two while they each took time to think and dream. Such wonderful things could happen if they got a dhampir on their side, but they only hired their services out to police and other desperate vampire hunters. Not vampires…the beings that they were destined to exterminate.

"What if he's not a dhampir and he just turns out to be a stupid little boy?"

"Then he'll just be a stupid little boy who got to learn a little more about vampire folklore," the blonde said and watched the boy as he began to pace the study. "Don't worry, Tatsuha, I won't screw up."

A gleam must've been showing in the blonde's eyes because his words didn't help to calm the boy who was currently panicking out in front of him.

"You're going to turn him, aren't you? Even with what I just said?" The blonde looked away and he boy stomped over to where he was seated. "You are!"

When the blonde didn't answer, the boy smacked him across the face and reached back for another blow, but Eiri caught him around the wrist.

"If what you're saying is true then he'll betray us one he learns what he is. You of all people should know that, Eiri!" the boy yelled and tore his arm out of his brother's grasp. Tatsuha started for the exit but the blonde flung his arm out, using magic to slam and lock the door. "Dammit, Eiri! Let me out!" he yelled and pounded on the door.

"You're right, he probably will do the same thing to me that I did to the others, but being killed is better than living like I have been for the better part of two centuries. If what I've been living can be considered life, that is!" the blonde said and stood up.

The boy turned around to face his brother, new crimson tears falling freely down his face. "Do you really feel like that, Eiri?" he asked, walking over to where his brother stood. "Would you really abandon us all if you were given the chance to be burned alive? Even after everything that we've been through."

The blonde closed his eyes and turned his head away from the boy, clenching his eyes tighter when he heard the boy smirk.

"You have no idea how hard it's been, Tatsuha," the blonde started but was cut off by a snort from his brother.

"Don't give me any more of your shit, Eiri. I don't want to hear it."

"If I didn't trust the boy, I wouldn't even be considering this. I know what it's like to see and hear things that other people can't. I know what it's like to have ultra-sensitive senses. I know…-" The blonde stopped for a moment to collect his stamina before continuing. "I know what it's like to have to kill…to be born to kill."

"You? Trusting somebody? Don't make me laugh," the boy said and found himself pinned against the wall, his brother's face inches away from his own.

"Don't insult me, Tatsuha. I have no reason to trust you, but I do anyway, so why can't I trust him? If a vampire from a different coven discovers his abilities then his powers will be at their disposal, not ours. Do you want that to happen?"

"Dhampir's don't have any powers besides being able to see vamps in their invisible states," the boy retorted.

"I think you need to read up on your dhampir knowledge again, Tatsuha. There are many levels to a dhampir's powers. They're like ranks. Although he hasn't even taken notice of his powers, he's already in the red, at least.

"He's more than I ever was. _Stronger_ than I ever was, both mentally and physically. He's got powers that others could only dream of having. They've just got to be tapped into by the right person…the right coven. Would you rather see him die than take the opportunity to finally be able to win our war?" The boy looked away from his brother and the blonde smiled. "That's what I thought," he finished and stepped away from the boy.

"He's more than a normal dhampir?" the boy asked. "Is that even possible?"

"You've read the books more than I have, Tatsuha. You tell me."

The boy gasped and ran over to the book shelf, tearing the largest book from the shelf as he did. He slammed the two-thousand-plus page behemoth onto the desk and frantically flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for. Silence fell for a while, only filled by the flipping of pages and quiet gasps from the reading boy.

"It's here," the boy said after fifteen minutes of reading, "every single fucking thing. It's all here."

The blonde crossed the room and stood across from his brother, reading some of the so-called-prophecy over upside down. And the boy was right, it was all there. Every goddamn thing that the blonde had just said and more was written in those pages.

"But…it's too soon." The boy looked up at the blonde with confusion on his face. "This says that we have a hundred more years left to wait."

The blonde just shrugged and retook his seat. "The Elders can't predict everything correctly, now can they?" he asked, smiling at the scowl he got from his brother.

"You dare to doubt their visions?"

"What did they say that our savior was supposed to be, Tatsuha?"

"A dhampir…but you said…"

"What I said was that I didn't know if he was one or not. If I had the make the choice, however, I would say that he was most definitely a dhampir."

"Well if it ends up that he's not a dhampir, what else could he be?" The boy began flipping through the book again, but this brother slammed it shut. Luckily, he missed his hand.

"Think about it, Tatsuha. What is the only thing that could stand having that much power bottled up for so long without destroying itself?" he asked.

The boy scowled and flipped the book open again, searching through page after page for information. "It's not in here. It says that a dhampir will save us from our hell, but what else could he be? What else would want to help us?"

The blonde shook his head and turned his attention to the sun that was almost set outside the window. "Nothing. Dhampir's are the only beings that walk the earth that can be considered our true rivals."

The boy shot a disgusted look at the blonde and slammed the book shut before returning it to its place on the wall to wall, floor to ceiling bookshelf, muttering quietly to himself. When the blonde saw that he was headed for the door and waved his hand, unlocking the barrier, and stared at the dark sky out his window. The door never opened or closed and soon he felt his brother's eye boring into him.

"What, Tatsuha?" he spat.

"Why do you, of all people, want to help him so badly?"

Eiri sighed. "I want to help him the way that _he_ helped me."

Tatsuha gasped and at his brother with wide eyes. "_Him?_ Why him? He did nothing but make your life a living Hell. He's the one who gave you this damned life."

"I know, Tatsuha," said Eiri, "but I can't deny that he was my teacher. He trained me to use and control my own powers before he brought me over." Tatsuha opened his mouth to say something but Eiri cut him off.

"I'm not saying that I'm going bring him over. I'm saying that I can teach him how to control and use his powers little by little. _He_ taught me how to tap into each of my powers without having to risk an overspill. If I can help him learn his powers one by one, then I think that we'll be okay."

Tatsuha sighed and silence fell once again, somewhat thinner this time and less tense. Soon a small sound began to cut through the silence, quiet at first but escalating the longer it lasted. The two vampires picked up their heads and perked their ears, preparing for the worst. But the sound became more discernable to Eiri the harder he concentrated on it. It sounded like someone humming a song, a somewhat familiar song.

The brothers tensed simultaneously.

"It's him, isn't it?" whispered Tatsuha.

Eiri nodded. "Yes, it is," he said. "Are you going to stay?"

The raven-haired vampire shook his head. "Not for long."

The blonde nodded again and stood from the comfort of his armchair. He was very close now, he could feel it.

'_Is that you, my love?'_

The humming persisted for a while. A sigh, then: _'Yes.'_

'_Where would you like me to meet you?'_

'_Stay where you are. I'll find you.'_

The blonde nodded. _'Of course.'_

'_Just…don't stay silent. I'll never find you if you block your mind off to me.'_

'_Okay.'_

The two ended their private conversation at that, and Eiri turned his attention back to his puzzled looking brother. Tatsuha smiled slightly and scratched the back of his head.

"Just promise me that you'll think _before_ you act this time," he pleaded, making a desperate attempt to divert his eyes from his brother's.

"Of course. I've grown since then, Tatsuha. I know how to control myself and my urges."

Tatsuha chuckled. "I'm not so sure," he whispered. "Just be sure to be careful, Eiri. We've each been terrified that we were going to lose the other once already. Please don't break that tie."

Eiri sighed and turned around to retort, but Tatsuha was gone. He sighed again and turned his attention back to the sky beyond his windows. The blonde rested his forehead against the cool glass and brought his hand up next to it, closing his eyes.

Shuichi was getting closer, he could sense it, and he couldn't wait for the welcome distraction. Anything to get his thoughts away from the ones that plagued his dark mind.

'_I'm sorry, Eiri,'_ Tatsuha sent. The blonde tried to send a response but the boy had locked his mind.

When Eiri opened his eyes, he could see Shuichi's lithe little body beginning its trek up his driveway. The corners of his lips twitched in a small smile and he opened the window. He leapt outside and ran over to where the boy was walking, moving faster than light.

"Hello, my love," he whispered.

The boy jumped but a beautiful smile graced his lips when he saw the blonde. Eiri opened his arms in a welcome gesture and the boy took it, melting gracefully into his embrace.

"I've missed you," Shuichi muttered against his chest.

Eiri chuckled quietly, but didn't say anything. He looked down as the boy brought his eyes up to his face and let himself drown in Shuichi's amethyst pools. When he dropped his lips down to the boy's, Shuichi yielded magnificently, opening his mouth for the blonde when he lightly ran his tongue along his bottom lip. He even moaned quietly into the kiss.

When they pulled apart, Eiri smiled at the red-faced boy and picked him up.

"Let's go inside, shall we?" he asked and carried Shuichi into the house through the window he had jumped from.

Shuichi pulled Eiri over to his leather arm chair and pushed him into it, taking his place on the blonde's lap. Eiri smirked at him and pulled the boy's lips back down to his own.

"I. Rather. Enjoy. This. Side. Of. You. Love." he said between kisses. "It's. Nice."

The boy chuckled and trailed his lips down to the side of the blonde's neck, nipping lightly and gently across the sensitive skin. No matter how hard he tried, the blonde couldn't take his eyes away from the perfectly pale nape of the boy's neck.

"I know what you are," Shuichi whispered into his ear. "Go ahead. Bite me."

The blonde shook his head and closed his eyes. "No, I can't."

The boy pulled away from Eiri's neck and looked up at him with confused eyes. "Why not?" he asked. "I want you to. I want to know what it feels like."

Eiri shook his head again, trying to dislodge the image of the boy's neck from his mind. "I will not. I'm sorry."

The boy sighed and sadness filled the blonde's heart. He lifted Shuichi from his lap and laid him gently on the ground. The boy looked at him in question but he just smiled at him before lowering his body over the lithe little one beneath him. Shuichi looked up at him with the most beautiful smile the blonde had ever seen before Eiri took his lips up in a kiss.

Clothes were torn away and hands and lips roamed unafraid over smooth, naked skin. Eiri held one of Shuichi's hands in his over his head and dropped his lips to the boy's collarbone and began to suck at it gently, allowing his fangs to brush gently over the exposed skin. Shuichi hissed and arched up into the kiss, his free hand clenching tightly around the blonde's pale bicep.

"Please," the boy whimpered. "Bite me."

Eiri closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on something other than the boy's voice and the exposed neck before him, but couldn't. With a growl, he wrapped a hand around the boy's erection and began to stroke it. Shuichi melted into quiet moans and whimpers almost immediately and the blonde took the opportunity to bite down. Shuichi cried out.

The boy's blood was sweet, and the rush of memories that came with the flow overwhelmed the blonde. He saw flashes of the pink-haired boy at work. He saw the smiling face of the boy's friend. He saw the cold, hard face of a middle-aged man as he beat and raped the boy time after time. The images filled the blonde's heart with surprise and sadness, but he couldn't bring himself to quit drinking.

When the boy beneath him screamed out in ecstasy, the blonde was violently thrown back into reality. He pulled away from Shuichi's neck and gazed down upon the boy's lust filled face. A beautiful pink blush had flamed across the boy's face and he panted heavily, his small chest heaving gently with every breath.

"Did I hurt you?" the blonde asked. He tipped his head down to lick at the puncture wounds, but the boy stopped him.

"No, don't," he said. Eiri looked up at him in confusion but he just smiled. "And you didn't hurt me."

Eiri smiled at him and took the boy's lips in a small kiss. When he pulled away, Shuichi was still smiling at him.

"How did I taste?" the boy asked, a failed attempt at innocence shining in his eyes.

The blonde kissed him again. "Amazing," he whispered.

Shuichi chuckled and gently cupped the blonde's face in his free hand. "How could someone do that to one so beautiful?" he whispered. "It seems almost cruel."

Eiri shook his head. "I had it coming for me. I asked for it."

The boy furrowed his brow but the blonde refused to say anything further. Shuichi pulled Eiri's face down to his and kissed him gently, taking the opportunity to flip the blonde onto his back. Seeing the boy above him, straddling him, made the blonde weak with need. He growled quietly and tried to pull the boy down to him, but Shuichi shoved him away.

With a devilish smile, he sunk down and kissed the corner of the blonde's mouth, moving down to his chin, and then kissing up his jaw. When he reached his ear, the boy nipped at it lightly, and Eiri let a quiet moan slip past his lips.

"You're teasing me," he whispered.

The boy laughed in his ear. "I know."

Lips slowly made their ways down the blonde's chest, taking a second to nip and suck at each of his nipples. Shuichi planted his hands on Eiri's hips and moved kissed down to the man's pelvis before licking up to his chest again. The blonde growled in want and need and the boy smiled at him innocently.

'_Where in the hell are you?' _A shouting voice invaded the blonde's head and he jumped.

'_I'm in the middle of something,'_ he growled. _'Can you please annoy me later?'_

'_You missed another meeting, Eiri. Tatsuha showed up with some bullshit story about you and a dhampir and our redemption, but as I said, it was bullshit.'_

'_You never know, Mika. Tatsuha could be right.'_

He could just mentally picture the brunette scowling prettily in his head. '_What in the hell do you mean, Eiri?' _she growled.

'_I mean just what I said.'_

The woman was silent for a minute and then sent: '_You know how badly Touma wants to get his hands on the Host, right?'_

'_Right.'_

'_He'll kill you if he knows that you have it and haven't given it to him. You know that, right?'_

'_Mika…it's me that you're talking about. I don't think he'd kill me.'_

His sister sent a laugh. '_You've never seen the power hungry side of him then, I'm guessing?_

'_Oh…I've seen it plenty of times in the past, but he wouldn't hurt _me_.'_

'_He will kill you if you're what's in his way of capturing the dhampir. Are you forgetting your last confrontation?'_

The blonde closed his eyes and rubbed at his head. _'No. I remember that night very well, Mika. That's why I don't plan on letting him find out about it.'_

'_So, you're just going to set him free without alerting any of the others?'_

'_You talk as if they wouldn't do the same to us.'_

'_Where are you getting at?'_ His sister seemed somewhat agitated, but afraid at the same time.

'_You know that Touma would rip the boy from his normal world and expect him to understand who and what he is. He doesn't, Mika. He is only aware of the smallest inkling of his powers. If Touma were to push them all onto him at once, he would lose control and destroy us all.'_

'_The boy?' _The woman laughed. '_You have got to be kidding me, Eiri. He knows nothing about us. We might as well walk out into the sun if our salvation is relying on that thing.'_

'_I never once revealed to him what I was, but he knew. I don't know how but he found out himself. Mika, he's stronger than any of us will ever be.'_

'_You're planning on turning him? Are you crazy?'_

'_Only as crazy as you make me. Tatsuha.'_ With that the blonde shut his mind away from intruders and returned his attention to the boy beneath him.

"Are you alright?" the boy asked, concern in his voice.

Eiri smiled at him slightly. "Yes, why?"

"You blacked out. I looked up at you and you're eyes were blank," the boy said, a concerned frown marring his face. "Are you sure you're alright?"

The blonde nodded and wrapped his arms tightly around the boy. "I'm fine."

Shuichi nodded against his chest and Eiri buried his face in the boy's soft, pink hair. It didn't take long for the boy's breath to even out and become deep and the blonde smiled softly. As carefully as he could, he lifted the boy from the floor and carried him to his bedroom, laying him out on the bed. Eiri curled up next to the boy and pulled the soft sheets over their bodies, smiling when Shuichi shifted onto his side and draped an arm over his chest.

The blonde kissed the boy's head softly. "Sleep tight, love."

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

A/N: YaY! I'm all done! WHOO-HOO! I hope you all liked it. It's kinda two different things weaved into one. Ya see…when I started this story it was going to be something like Shuichi's slacking in school and Eiri ends up being his tutor…blah, blah, blah. But then I restarted it. But I had the prologue and first two chapters of the other one finished and the second chapter of the other one kinda went with this one so I sewed 'em together. And this is longer than the other chapters, isn't it? I dunno… Did I confuse you?…

Well…since it's been so long, I don't remember who reviewed, but you know who you are…I hope. Thank you so much to all of you who did review and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as much as the other ones. This is for you…

Sorry for any typos!…

Bye, bye…


	4. Chapter Three: The Nightmare

Sorry, sorry, SORRY for the extremely long wait for this chapter! I know that it didn't take as long as chapter two did to be posted, but I'm still sorry. I've just been focusing so much of my attention on finishing up "ILaH" lately that everything else has just sorta been shoved aside…_cries_… I'M SORRY!…

Following is the definition for dhampir…

**_dhampir:_** Gypsies believe that some vampires have an insatiable sexual appetite and will return from the grave to have sex with their widow or a young woman of their choosing. The vampire's continued visits could lead to the woman becoming pregnant… The product of such a union, usually a male, was called a _dhampir_. It was believed that the dhampir had unusual powers for detecting and destroying the vampire—and important ability. Some modern dhampirs among Gypsies of Eastern Europe place most of their value in their ability to locate the vampire, which was simply shot with a pistol if located outside its grave… Some individuals believed to be dhampirs supplemented their income by hiring themselves out as vampire hunters. The dhampir was otherwise a normal member of the Gypsy community, though some people believed that a true dhampir possessed a slippery, jelly-like body and lived only a short life—a belief derived from the understanding that vampires have no bones… The powers of the dhampir could be passed to male offspring, and ultimately through a family line. While vampire hunting abilities could be inherited, they could not be learned…

(Melton, J. Gordon. _The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead_. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1999. p.296)

Voila…and there ya have it. And, yes, I do own _The Vampire Book_. It's huge and was on sale for eight bucks so I bought it. While it's mostly just about movies and books and all that stuff involving vampires, it's sections about vampire origins, Christianity and vampires, etc. have proven to be extremely useful…

Anyway…on with the chapter!…

**Disclaimer:** I, unfortunately, don't own _Gravitation_…

**Chapter Three  
The Nightmare…**

Quiet tapping from somewhere in the boy's surroundings pulled him from his peaceful slumber. He slowly opened his amethyst eyes and yawned quietly, rubbing violently at his eyes in an attempt to rid the sleep from them. He stretched and yawned once more and sat up in the comfortable bed, taking time to enjoy the feel of the silk sheets as they slid against his bare skin.

The blonde vampire sat across the room, the pale moonlight shining across his equally pale face while he concentrated on something he typed on the computer before him. The boy smiled slightly at the sight and quietly crept out of the bed, wrapping a sheet around his body. He snuck up behind Eiri and wrapped his arms around his neck from behind after a planting a soft kiss on the back of it.

Eiri chuckled and a hand went up to gently clasp one of Shuichi's. The pink-haired boy sighed in content and nuzzled his face into the crook of the blonde's shoulder.

"Did you sleep well?" Eiri asked.

Shuichi nodded. "Yes, that was the first dreamless sleep I've had in a long time."

Although he couldn't see it, the boy knew that Eiri's face had tensed and his brow had furrowed. He sighed quietly to himself.

_'Here come the questions,'_ he thought.

The blonde deftly untwined himself from Shuichi's arms and looked him over with a soft look in his usually cold amber eyes. "You have nightmares when you sleep?" he asked.

Shuichi dropped his eyes to the floor and nodded slowly. "You could call them that," he muttered. "They're more like bad memories that like to haunt me in my sleep."

Smooth fingers grasped his chin gently and forced him to look up into Eiri's eyes.

"You've been through more than a mortal should have to," Eiri whispered. "Your life was full of pain and sadness before you met your friend, wasn't it?"

Shuichi bowed his head in shame. "Yes. Hiro saved my life."

Eiri frowned and Shuichi found himself enveloped in warmth, and he couldn't hold back the flow of tears that spilled over. It had been so long since he'd last cried about the terrible things that he'd been put through as a child that he thought he had forgotten how to. The salty tears that fell were ripped from the bottomless well in the deep depths of his heart.

Shuichi's hands went up and encircled Eiri's shoulders. He clung to the man for the fear of being alone. He didn't want to be alone ever again.

"Shuichi," Eiri cooed and began to run his fingers gently through Shuichi's hair.

The boy's tears increased tenfold. It had been years since someone had held him like the blonde vampire was, so long since he'd loved someone and knew that it was true deep inside his heart. But, as badly as he wanted to be close to someone, he couldn't allow it. Even though Eiri was a preternatural being, he would never be able to accept what the boy hid beneath his skin. The things that he saw, the feelings that invaded his heart. He couldn't be near anyone for the fear that he would tear them apart.

"I won't leave you, Love," the vampire whispered. "You don't have to worry. I'll never leave your side."

Shuichi shook his head and tightened his grip around Eiri's shoulders. Was he lying? Was he telling the truth? He didn't know. Just the bare hint of emotion that showed in the blonde's voice should have convinced him that he was being honest, but he'd learned that he couldn't even trust honesty sometimes.

Eiri sighed and kissed the top of Shuichi's head gently. Slowly but surely, Shuichi's tears slowed to a stop and he pulled himself out of the blonde's arms. Eiri reached out to brush his tears away, but Shuichi turned his back to him, rubbing at his eyes violently with the palms of his hands.

"Please talk to me, Love," Eiri whispered, laying a hand on Shuichi's shoulder. "I want to help you."

Shuichi shook his head and shrugged Eiri's hand away. "You can't help me. No one can."

Eiri sighed. "I can help you more than you think," he said.

Shuichi's shoulders stiffened and he couldn't keep himself from turning around to face him. The conviction in the blonde's voice had caught him off guard.

"You can't change who I am!" Shuichi shouted. "You sit here, trying to give me some kind false hope, when you really don't know a thing about me or what I am."

The boy turned his back on Eiri and sprinted from the room. He ran through hallway after hallway, the long black silk sheet a streamer behind him, until he found the front door. He threw one of the large oak doors open and took off down the driveway. But someone caught hold of his wrist. He turned around and saw Eiri standing behind him.

"Let me go, Eiri!" he screamed. "Just let me go!"

The blonde shook his head. "I won't."

Shuichi broke out into hysterical laughter, his entire body trembling. Tears were once again rolling down his face and he collapsed onto his knees. Images of his master and the other cruel people from his past filled his head, slowly driving him to the edge.

Two hands gripped Shuichi's wrists and pulled his hands away from his eyes. The boy looked up and found himself drowning in the deep pools of amber that were Eiri's eyes.

"I know what you are, Love," Eiri whispered. "I know much more than you think I do. I may know more about you than you know about yourself."

"STOP LYING TO ME!" Shuichi screamed in agony. "I'm sick of lies. I'm sick of pain. Just let me go, Eiri!" He struggled against the hands that held him, but they refused to loosen.

Shuichi's tiny fists flew in front of him and began pounding ruthlessly against Eiri's chest, but his hands still refused to relinquish their grip. His mind was so clouded by memories and sadness that he could hardly see the real world beyond the pain. Eiri pulled him to his chest and Shuichi collapsed against him, burying his face in the blonde's silk shirt.

Eiri ran his fingers deftly through Shuichi's hair to calm him. The words that escaped through the boy's lips were only mumbled incoherencies. Eiri buried his face in Shuichi's pink locks and breathed in deeply.

"I'm here to help you, Love, not to hurt you," he whispered. "Never in my life would I ever think of hurting you."

Shuichi shook his head and moaned pitifully into the blonde's chest. "Please, stop. I can't handle it."

One of Eiri's hands moved up to embrace Shuichi's neck while the other buried itself in his shaggy hair, his fingers massaging his scalp gently.

"No, no, no," Shuichi cried, but he had long since stopped struggling in his exhaustion.

The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by the blissful nothingness of unconsciousness.

**-------------**

He was running, always running. He was sick of running, but, once again, he found himself tearing through alleyways at what felt like mach speed while trying to ignore the footsteps behind him that seemed to grow ever closer.

Freedom. He could almost taste it. But, then again, he could always taste freedom when he ran from the Hell that was his home. The feeling that he'd finally escaped always gave him a false sense of security and caused him to drop his guard. Not this time. This time he was going to escape. This time he _had_ to escape. That place was killing him.

The eerie darkness of the alleyway surrounding him grew heavier until it almost felt like it was suffocating him. But he couldn't stop now, not when he could see the light at the end. So what if it was just barely a pinprick of light? It was still a sign that he was getting closer and closer to his freedom. It was just a small sign of hope.

His name rang out behind him, the scream sounding manic in its anger and frustration. The panic that he'd tried to repress deep inside his heart resurfaced. Blindly, the boy turned his head around and looked behind him, but all he saw was darkness. He could feel the stream of tears falling from his eyes, melding with the sweat, but he didn't waste the time to wipe them away. There were more important things that he had to do.

The boy's foot caught in a pothole and he stumbled to the ground. A scream more out of anger than pain tore out of his throat as his ankle twisted.

"No!" he shouted and used the brick wall next to him to drag himself back up onto his feet before he took off running again.

The pain that shot up his let every time he stepped down on his injured ankle was excruciating, but he wouldn't let it get the best of him.

"Shuichi," the leader of the pack behind him sang. "Why don't you be a good boy and stop so we can take you back alive? You master will kill us if we have to do anything to hurt you."

"Burn in Hell," he shouted and locked his eyes on the growing light at the end of the tunnel.

_'Almost there. Just a little further and you'll be free.'_

Shuichi closed his eyes and wiped his tears away with the back of his hand. Freedom. Yes, he could taste it. Almost…

The light just beyond his grasp was darkened. He knew that he should stop before something went wrong, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Given the choice to face his hunters or whatever was blocking his path, he'd much rather face the thing blocking his path any day.

He collided with the thing painfully and fell backwards onto the ground.

"Where do you think you're going, little dhampir?" the roadblock asked.

"Dham…pir?" The familiar word rolled from Shuichi's tongue as he wracked the back of his mind to remember where he'd heard it before.

"Yes, dhampir. That's what you are," the person said and a hand was clamped around Shuichi's arm.

"No!" he screamed. "Let me go, dammit! Don't give me back to them! Please!"

The person picked him up and lifted him so he could put his mouth next to the boy's ear. "Don't worry, little one. You won't have to worry about them any longer."

_'What?'_ The question had barely formed on the boy's lips before a solid object collided with the back of his skull and he lost consciousness.

**-------------**

A scream echoed through the quiet room. Shuichi sat up in the large four-poster bed, sweat dripping down his face, before realizing the scream had been his own. He used a shaking hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead and trailed it down his cheeks, not surprised to feel that he was crying, as well. His each breath was ragged and painful in his chest.

He closed his eyes and laid back in the bed, rubbing violently at his eyes with his fists.

_'Damn dreams! Why won't you leave me alone? Why won't you let me forget?'_

He stared blankly at the ceiling above him, recognizing the random popcorn designs somewhere in his mind but not knowing from where. His eyes grew wide and he shot back up in his bed again, his eyes surveying the room about him. He was back at his apartment! Eiri had brought him home? But, why? If he'd really wanted to help him, he would have let him stay with him.

"Stupid bastard and his God-complex," he muttered as he collapsed onto his mattress, curling onto his side. "Why do all vampires think that they know everything about anything just because they've lived for a century or more?"

Shuichi let his eyes drift closed again and gave into the drowsiness that clouded his mind. His sleep was restless, but void of anymore nightmares. When he awoke in the morning, he held no memory of what had woken him so violently or why he felt so paranoid. His anger at the blonde vampire who had abandoned him still lingered however.

_"Eiri! Where are you, you bastard!' _he demanded, sending his mind out to find the source of his anger and frustration.

When he didn't receive an answer, Shuichi growled in annoyance and shut his mind away from intruders. If he wasn't going to respond to him, then he didn't need to respond to Eiri either. He knew that the vampire was lost in the only sleep that could closely compare with death, but he didn't care. Any reason to be angry with Eiri at the moment was a valid reason.

The piercing shrill of his telephones stabbed through the morning silence of his apartment. Shuichi hefted himself out of bed with a quiet grumble of annoyance and grabbed the cordless phone that sat on his bedside table.

"Hello?" he mumbled.

"Where in the hell have you been?" Hiro shouted. "I've been trying to call you since last night!"

Shuichi winced at the pitch of his friend's voice and sighed. "I was out, apparently," he said.

A sigh echoed through the phone line and Shuichi couldn't help but kick himself. He hated it when Hiro worried about him because he tended to overdo it. It was a wonder that the man hadn't fallen to pieces yet.

"Sorry for the insolence, Hiro, but I'm really not feeling my best right now," he said.

Even though he couldn't see the man, he knew that Hiro had furrowed his brow and was digging through his mind to find something to say next.

"I was worried about you, Shu. You've been really reclusive lately and it's starting to worry me."

Shuichi sighed. "Don't worry about me, Hiro. You've got enough to worry about without me thrown onto your plate."

"No! Don't you even tell me that I shouldn't worry about you!" Hiro snapped. "You're my best friend and I care about you and I'm going to worry myself to pieces over you whether you like it or not."

Shuichi sighed again but didn't respond. After a few seconds of silence, Hiro spoke again.

"I wanna see you today," he said. "Is that okay?"

Shuichi rolled his eyes. "I guess. I have to work tonight."

"I know. So do I."

Silence fell and Shuichi couldn't repress the sarcastic comment that formed in the front of his head. "Well, Hiro. I know that I have freakish powers but I can't read your mind. Are you planning on telling me where you wanna meet?"

Hiro chuckled quietly and Shuichi could've sworn that he heard a mumbled "smart ass" somewhere in there before he answered his question. "How about in the café downtown?"

"Sounds good. I haven't been there in a while."

"Is one alright with you?"

"Whenever is alright with me."

Hiro chuckled again. "Alright. I'll see you at one."

"Alright. Bye."

Shuichi pressed the off button on the phone and replaced it in its cradle to charge. With a heavy sigh, he stretched his arms to the sky and checked the time. It was noon. He still had an hour before he had to meet Hiro and the café was a fifteen minute walk from his apartment. Shuichi shook his head and slouched to his bathroom to take a shower.

The warm water felt like heaven against his tense muscles. He threw his head back beneath the spray and let the water run down his face and plaster his bangs to his forehead. The feeling of paranoia that he'd felt when he'd first woken up still hadn't left him and he couldn't figure out why.

His shower was over in fifteen minutes and Shuichi wandered out into his bedroom with a towel draped around his waist. He stopped in front of his full length mirror and gazed at his naked reflection, disgust crawling beneath his skin. He ran a hand through his hair and pulled at the strands, wondering where he'd ever gotten the idea to color his it pink and why Hiro had even let him do it. It wasn't that it looked bad on him; it was because he alone knew what was hiding beneath the pink. Hiro knew his natural hair color, but he didn't now the memories that came with it.

Shuichi growled and tore his eyes away from his reflection. He crossed his room and threw open his closet doors, throwing a pair of boxers and jeans onto the floor before pulling a T-shirt from a hanger. He pulled his clothes on and ran a hand through his hair in a vain attempt to tame the disheveled locks.

When he checked the clock again, it was twelve-forty. Shuichi sighed and left his bedroom. The key to his apartment was lying on the kitchen counter with a note. He picked the paper up with halfhearted interest and read the words.

_Shuichi,  
Whenever you're ready, I'll listen.  
Eiri_

Shuichi dropped his hand to his side and balled it into a fist, crushing the paper in his grasp. That bastard thought he knew everything. He thought he knew how it felt to be born to kill. Unlike the vampire, he'd never been given the choice. He was born a murder and trained to be a murder by the one person who had understood him. However cruel the man had been never clouded the fact that he _knew_ how it felt to be what Shuichi was.

"Why didn't I sense him in the park? I should have known!" he growled to himself. "Why did I have to let myself be conned into believing that he could help me?" He touched a pale finger to his lips. "Why did I have to kiss him?"

Shuichi closed his eyes and threw the note into the trash before grabbing his key and storming out the door. He was a vampire hunter for Christ's sake! Why hadn't he killed Eiri when he'd had the chance? He'd let his defenses collapse and gave himself over to the blonde as if it didn't matter. And it didn't. It didn't matter if the vampire had a soul or not, it was still his job to kill them. Eiri shouldn't be an exception.

The sidewalk outside his building was crowded with Saturday afternoon shoppers, some already weighted down with bags of purchases. He chuckled quietly to himself. His longing to be one of them had diminished as the years had passed and it had been replaced with a vicious determination that only he could marshal, but he still enjoyed living around them. The ignorant people who walked the streets everyday reminded him of why his job was so important.

Shuichi shoved his sunglasses over his eyes and started down the street. Some of the people he passed smiled and he smiled back. Others offered a small hello, to which he responded with a wave. The ones who felt that they didn't have time for anything or anyone but themselves walked with their noses in the air and their brains in their pocketbooks or wallets. People like them always managed to piss him off, but he stored it; he could put that anger to a much better use sometime down the road.

When the small corner café finally came into view, Shuichi couldn't repress the sigh that fell from his lips. Now that he was almost there, he was starting to regret ever agreeing to meet Hiro in the first place. The first thing the auburn-haired man would do would be to ask questions and his insatiable appetite for the truth would never be filled. Shuichi shook his head. As much as he wasn't looking forward to the meeting, he couldn't bring himself to blow Hiro off.

Shuichi crossed the street adjacent to the café and waved feebly at Hiro. The young man was sitting at one of the outdoor tables. Shuichi walked through the space in the fencing that surrounded the patio and took a seat across from his friend.

"Hey, Shu!" Hiro said. "How are ya?"

Shuichi shrugged and pulled his sunglasses off. "Okay, I guess."

Hiro furrowed his brow and lead his forearms on the table. "You're lying."

"And if I am?"

Hiro frowned and sighed in exasperation before collapsing back in his chair. "Why are you like this all of a sudden, Shuichi? You tell me that I shouldn't worry my ass off about you, but you won't tell me anything so I won't. I want to know what the fuck is going on."

Shuichi flinched against the tone of Hiro's voice and sighed. Hiro was right. There was no use in telling the man not to worry about him if he wasn't going to give him some kind of plausible reason for him not to worry about him. But he couldn't tell him the truth…refused to tell him the truth. Nothing good would come out of getting Hiro mixed up in the shit that he had found himself submersed in. But what to tell him?

He sighed again. "Look, Hiro. I'm sorry, okay?"

Hiro frowned at him but Shuichi could see the tense muscle relax in his jaw. "Okay. Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

Shuichi closed his eyes and rested his forehead in his left hand. "Remember that vision I had in the park about a week ago? Well, I met the man who I saw in it."

Hiro narrowed his eyes and frowned. "Why didn't you tell me this?"

Shuichi shook his head. "It doesn't matter. After you left me there, I passed out or something. When I woke up, I was in this room that I couldn't leave. All of the exits were sealed with magic. There was a mirror in the room and I saw that my aura was…different. He was in my mind. I passed out again. He was there when I woke up."

"Who is he?"

"His name is Eiri Uesugi and he's…" Shuichi sighed. _'How should I put this so it doesn't give him a heart attack?'_ "He's a…" He sighed again.

"Just spit it out, Shu," Hiro said, a twinge of annoyance in his voice.

"He's a vampire."

Hiro's jaw fell slack and he looked at Shuichi with eyes that said "Are you being serious?" before he fell in to a fit of laughter. He collapsed onto the table, his long hair fanned around his head. When he calmed, he looked up at Shuichi with drying tears running down his face. "A vampire?"

"Yes. A vampire. Nosferatu. A sucker of blood. A creature of the night. One of the undead. A real live folklore."

Hiro shook his head and looked at Shuichi as if he was mental, but didn't say anything.

Shuichi growled and stood up from the table. "I should've known that this would go nowhere," he muttered and walked away.

"Shuichi!" Hiro called and his hand clasped around Shuichi's wrist a few seconds later.

The boy turned around to shout at the young man, but Hiro's earlier humor was replaced with blatant solemnity.

"Tell me what happened," he said. "I want to know. And I want to know about you and how you now these things. I want to know about your life before I found you bleeding to death in that gutter. I want to know about Shindou Shuichi."

Shuichi sighed and closed his eyes, all the strength draining from his body. "And what will come of it when you find out?" he whispered. "Huh? You'll tell me that you'll stay, but you won't."

"Nothing can make me leave you, Shu. My blood is flowing through your veins. Whether you want me to or not, I'll always be there for you."

Shuichi shook his head and glanced at Hiro out of the corner of his eye. Nothing on his face said that he was lying and his aura was still its normal red-orange color with just a little more yellow-green sympathy splotches than there usually were. Shuichi sighed.

"Okay, but I won't tell you here. We've gotta go back to my place."

Hiro nodded and ran back to the table to grab his jacket and leave the money for the cup of coffee he'd ordered and barely drank half of. He returned to Shuichi's side and smiled at him softly.

"Let's go," Shuichi said and lead the way back to his home.

TBC…

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A/N: Mwuhahahahahahahahaha! Evil cliffhanger! _dances_ Sorry, I'm gonna have to save Shu's past for another chapter and, if you've noticed how I write the chapters, that won't come until two chapters from now. He, he. I'm so mean…

This chapter's kinda different from the others since we finally know that Shuichi does know what he is. But it doesn't change anything…I've got some good ideas for the coming chapters…

Anyway…once again, I'm sorry that this took so long to get posted. I had it going good until my computer crashed and I lost it. Ugh… But, alas, I pulled through and, after only a short time of writer's block, finished the chapter. And I know it's short but I'll make up for it in chapter five…trust me…

Thank you, thank you to…

**Dhampir:** _hugs_ I thought about you when I was naming that chapter, too. I started laughing and hoped that you would read it. Thankfully, you did. He, he… I'm glad that you like where I'm taking it…do you still like where I'm taking it? Anywho…no _you're_ the superior writer. He, he. Don't ya just love pointless arguing? Love and huggles…

**Hikaru Itsuko:** I'm sorry that I took a while in updating again. I would have posted this sooner if all the crap with "ILaH" hadn't have happened. Ugh… Anyway…I hope you enjoyed this chapter too…

**animegirl12182:** I tried your Google game… It was fun. And it's rubbed off on my friend. She tries to Google everything now and then laughs hysterically even when it's not so funny. You still have to laugh, though, 'cause she's one of those people with a contagious laugh… Anywho…I hope you liked this chapter and that watching a guy squeeze poo out of baby chicks didn't scar you… LoL… Hugs…

**Ashley Vulpix:** I'm sorry that I took so long updating again. _cries_ Do you forgive me? Please do. I hope you liked this chapter as well as you did all of the other ones…

**Yami Chikara:** Best Gravi vampire fic you've found so far? _blushes_ Thank you. I'm glad that you like it…

**GravityNeko:** I hope you liked this chapter too…

**DBZ luver2:** Ditto to above. He, he. But I really hope that you liked it…

**kuriqa:** _hugs_ Did I tell you what a dhampir was in my letter? I think I did. If I didn't then you know now… Damn…I hate having such a bad memory. He, he. Almost as much as I hate being short. Anywho…I love you and hope to hear from you soon, okies? _glomps_…

**Honey:** Thanks for your review and I hope you still like it…

I really am terribly sorry that it took me so long to post the last chapter, but now I know where I want this baby to go. WHOO-HOO! _dances again_ Sorry you all had to see that… LoL…

Welp…I have the next chapter done and ready so be lookin' for that soon, okies?... Until then, adieu...


	5. Chapter Four: The Coven

Welcome, welcome to chapter four of "Unbeating Heartache". Unless you collapsed when you saw how soon it was that I updated, that is. He, he. Yeah…sorry about all the other chapters. I've actually had this chapter done for a while now and chapter five is on a roll so be lookin' for that one soon..

Enjoy!…

**Disclaimer:** I don't own it…blah, blah, blah…

**Chapter Four  
The Coven…**

Family meetings. Eiri hated everything about them because nothing good _ever_ came out of them. The meetings were first created so they could make plans together as a group, but now all anyone did was argue back and forth and nothing was ever done. The only reason he ever went was so Mika wouldn't get her panties in a twist and bitch him out like she had after he'd missed the last one.

The vampire sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He sat in the back of the room, away from the two bickering vampires in the front. There were things that he'd much rather be doing instead of listening to pointless arguing. Like finding Shuichi, for instance.

The boy hadn't tried to make contact of any sort with Eiri since the night he'd broken down at the vampire's home. Eiri had taken Shuichi home because he'd thought that it would be best for him; he never expected the boy to ignore him and shut him out like he was. He'd gone by Shuichi's apartment before the meeting had started, but he wasn't home. He would have gone to the boy's place of work if he'd had the time, but he couldn't afford to miss another meeting. Not with Mika's harping and the impending danger.

"Touma is getting frustrated," Mika said as she preached to Tatsuha, the only one who was listening to her. "He wants to join sides with us but can't do it unless you make up your damned minds."

"You're married to him, why can't you do something about it?" Tatsuha muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Mika asked through gritted teeth.

Tatsuha shrugged. "I dunno. You must be hearing things."

Eiri could almost watch the pink roses forming on Mika's pale cheeks as anger began to slowly cloud her mind, just like the red that was slowly beginning to take over the usual orange of her aura. He sighed. As much as he wasn't paying attention, he didn't want to have to sit through another brawl tonight.

"Look, Tatsuha. Why don't you start listening to Mika instead of throwing rude comments at her for once and maybe something would get done," he said.

Tatsuha snorted. "Maybe you should _listen_ at these damned things for once. We didn't start these meetings so she could just bitch at me, ya know."

Mika slapped the back of Tatsuha's head and the raven-haired vampire turned back to her with a hiss. "What the hell was that for?"

"If you'll excuse me," she snapped, "I wasn't quite done with my bitching yet."

Tatsuha rolled his eyes and slouched down in his chair. Eiri returned to staring blankly at the wall just above Mika's shoulder so he would at least look like he was listening a little bit. He knew that she wouldn't fall for it, but it never hurt a person to try.

_'Shuichi.'_

There was no answer.

_"Shuichi, please answer me. I want to see you again.'_

Still no answer.

Eiri sighed and rested his chin in his hand, his elbow propped up on the armrest of the chair he sat in.

Why had he blocked his mind off from him? Had he done something to upset the boy? Eiri shook his head. Of course he'd done something to upset Shuichi, but he hadn't meant it to and he'd never expected the boy to keep a grudge for so long, whether Eiri had tried to pry into his past or not.

"I was wrong when I saw that he didn't know what he was." The words fell from his mouth before he'd had the time to stop himself.

Mika stopped in the middle of her lecture, her mouth gaping open. Tatsuha turned around in his chair and looked at Eiri like he was crazy.

"Do what?" Tatsuha asked.

Eiri sighed. "I was wrong when I said that Shuichi didn't know what he was."

Mika furrowed her brow and took a seat in her armchair, her legs crossed and a serious expression on her face. "How do you know? You didn't ask him about it, did you?"

Eiri shrugged. "It depends on your definition of asking."

Mika narrowed her eyes and stood from her chair. Her heels clicked against the hardwood floor as she crossed the study and pulled a dictionary from the shelf. She flipped the book open and flipped through the pages, stopping after a few and using her finger as a marker to find what she was looking for.

"Ask," she read, "request, require, question, invite. To make inquiry or request." She snapped the book shut with a dull clap, dust particles flying from the old pages, and looked up at Eiri with her head cocked. "Well…?"

"If that's your definition, then no, I didn't ask him about what he was."

Mika frowned and dropped the book on her desk before returning to her seat. "Well, if you didn't ask, what did you do?"

"He said something along the lines of 'you can't change what I am' and I told him that I knew what he was and that I could help him," Eiri muttered, the memory of that night reeling in his head. Mika opened her mouth to speak, but Eiri caught her. "If you're going to ask if he believed me, the answer is no. He didn't believe that I knew what he was. Hell, he didn't even believe that I knew _who_ he was." He sighed. "He's rather difficult."

Mika chuckled. "Apparently so."

Eiri shook his head and turned his eyes to Tatsuha to see what response he could get out of him. The boy glared at his brother with narrowed eyes and an unreadable expression on his face.

"What do you think, Tatsuha?"

The vampire shrugged. "What am I supposed to think?"

Eiri sighed. "Just tell me what you think I should do, please, Tatsuha," he said but the boy didn't hear any of it because he was already rambling on.

"I think that this was completely bogus and that we're going to die because you thought that the dhampir trusted you when it really didn't. Now it's running around free and any other coven could grab it up and use it for their own defenses."  
"I never said that _he_ didn't trust me, Tat."

"No, you didn't," Tatsuha laughed, "but it's written all over your face." Eiri frowned and Tatsuha smirked. "Just tell me something, Brother. How long has it been since you've seen or talked to Shindou?"

Eiri frowned and dropped his eyes to the floor. When he heard Tatsuha smirk, he knew that the talk they'd had a week before was flashing through his mind, too.

"That's why I thought. You haven't seen him since you told him that you knew what he was, have you?" Eiri shook his head. "Well, there we have it. He knows that you're a vampire and he knows that he's a dhampir. Hm…put two and two together and what do you get?" Tatsuha paused for effect, putting a finger under his chin to make it look like he was thinking. "Oh! That's right. You get one pissed off vampire hunter who's spotted his next victim."

Eiri narrowed his eyes at his brother and sighed. "He won't kill me, Tatsuha."

The boy laughed, throwing his head back. "No? And what in your crazy mind convinced you to believe that? He's a fucking vampire hunter, Eiri! He kills us because he was born to kill us. Just because the two of you had one night together doesn't change that."

"I know," Eiri whispered and dropped his eyes.

"You slept with him?" Mika's reasonable voice cut through the tension in the air.

Eiri tensed and lifted his head to glace at his older sister. He shook his head. "No, you interrupted before we could get that far."

"Have you seen him, though?" Eiri nodded and Mika sighed. She crossed the room and knelt in front of Eiri, laying a gentle hand on his knee. "What's so different about him, Eiri? Why do you feel these things for him?"

Eiri laughed. "He's beautiful, Mika. You should see him. His spirit is so young and, even though his past was Hell, he carries himself so innocently. You'd never know that he was a brutal killer." He laughed again. "He's not afraid of me like…—"

"Like all other mortals are," Mika finished for him and she nodded. "I know how you feel, Eiri, but you can't let him get the best of you. You may love him and he may one day say that he loves you, but you can never forget that he's a killer of our kind."

"And you think that he'd kill his own kind?"

Mika gasped and slapped Eiri's arm. "Don't you even think about turning him, Eiri! We don't need anyone else under our wings. All our fledglings were murdered by the Elders, if you haven't noticed. Do you want that to happen to him?"

"They won't kill him if they know what he is," Eiri muttered.

"No, Eiri, _what_ he was. Even if he keeps any of his dhampir powers when he's changed into a vampire, he'll be prosecuted for killing his own kind and left to be killed by Helios. Think, Eiri. Do you want him to suffer through that, as well?"

Eiri shook his head and Mika patted his knee gently.

"Meeting adjourned for tonight, I think," she said.

Tatsuha, as usual, stood from his seat and left the room in silence. Eiri tried to do the same, but Mika opened her mouth before he had a chance to get to the door.

"Please be careful, Eiri. I don't want to be afraid that I'm going to lose you again. Once was enough."

He nodded and gave her a weak smile before exiting the room, his thoughts swirling around Shuichi and where the boy could possibly be.

_'Shuichi. Please answer me, Love.'_

He wasn't surprised when he didn't receive a response.

_'I'm sorry if I angered you with my words but I can't make it right unless you speak to me.'_

There was still no answer and he sighed, his entire body seeming to sag in on itself. He wanted desperately to go to the boy's new place of work later that night, but he knew that Shuichi would ignore him if he did see him and he didn't want to sit through another ripping from Tatsuha.

But, before he could convince himself otherwise, Eiri looked up and found himself standing in front of the secluded front door of _Casa del Rosa_. As little as the name of the club made sense, he thought it quite ironic that the pink-haired boy's place of work was literally translated to "house of the pink."

Eiri sighed and pushed the door open. He was immediately hit with the exotic mixture of smoky incense that the club's owner insisted on burning. Jasmine, sandalwood, cinnamon, rose petals. In each of the small lanterns was a small tea light, and over each of them was a red or pink scarf that doused the room in a romantic pink glow. For once, the first floor of the club that housed the main bar was only splattered here and there with couples that hung all over each other.

He looked up and let his eyes linger on the strobe lights that flashed from the cracks in the heavy warehouse doors that sealed off the dance floor and "rave" room. If Shuichi was anywhere, that would be it. He knew that the room was full of cage that workers danced in and, if he knew Shuichi, he knew that the boy loved to dance and show his lithe body off to anyone who would watch.

"Oh, it's you."

Eiri jumped slightly at the close and surprisingly familiar voice from behind him. He turned around and saw the raven-haired woman that had once been Shuichi's boss. Her long hair was twisted in ringlets and held in place by silver clasps. Her old skimpy work costume had been replaced by a long, formfitting black gown with a slit that ran up to her hip, exposing a generous amount of thigh.

"Hello, Artemis," he said and tried on his best smile.

She smiled in return. "It's been a while since I've seen you. Are you here looking for Shu?"

He nodded and let his eyes drift up to the out of place warehouse doors again. "Yes. Have you seen him?"

"No." Eiri turned his eyes back to Artemis in surprise and saw that she was looking at the doors too. "He hasn't been scheduled to work for the past few days. If he did manage to sneak past me, though, he'd be up there for sure."

"Thanks." Eiri smiled at her and headed for the worn spiral staircase that would take him up to the dance floor.

"Oh, and Eiri."

He froze at the bottom step and turned back to her. She smiled at him briefly and something Eiri couldn't quite name flashed in her eyes, but she blinked and it was gone.

"I know that you think you know, but let him talk if he gives you the chance," she whispered. "Let him hit you and do whatever he wants, just make sure you listen to everything he screams at you."

Eiri furrowed his brow at the woman in confusion. She offered him one last small smile and then turned away to tend to the couple who had just walked through the door. Eiri shook his head and tore his eyes away from the woman's back before starting up the staircase.

Even though he couldn't hear it, he could feel the music thumping through the floor by the time he made it to the second story. He sighed and closed his eyes and slowly crossed to the doors. He shoved them open with a shoulder and was immediately hit with the strong scent of strawberries that he knew all too well. Shuichi was here all right. He opened his eyes and searched the crowded dance floor with challenge. Now it was just a matter of finding the tricky little brat.

Eiri lifted his eyes to the cages that lined the walls and hung from the ceiling but didn't find Shuichi in any of them. He scoffed at himself. Of course he wouldn't be in one of those. You had to work to be able to dance in the cages.

With his mind set in vicious determination, Eiri pushed and shoved his way through the sweaty crowd. There was barely enough space to breathe, much less walk, and he was glad when he noticed that Shuichi's scent was getting stronger with each step he took deeper into the crowd.

Then, finally, he could see him. Shuichi was dressed in a pair of tight, black leather pants and a tight, black tank top that ended just above his abdomen, covered by a bright pink, long-sleeved mesh shirt, and his usual black chocker was tied around his neck. A bright sheen of sweat covered his body and made his hair stick to his face, glistening droplets flying into the air with every one of his movements.

Eiri smiled and weaved his way toward the boy, his worry quickly disappearing, only to be replaced by hunger. He wrapped his arms around the lithe boy from behind and took a deep breath.

"I've finally found you."

Shuichi gasped and spun around and out of his arms. He stared at the vampire with wide eyes full of surprise that soon narrowed and filled with anger.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he spat. "I told Artemis to keep you away from me."

Eiri smirked. "She didn't seem too upset about letting me through. I did talk to her, after all, and she directed me up here."

Shuichi rolled his eyes and turned his back to Eiri, forcing his way through the crowd toward the bar.

_'Don't even think about following me.'_

Eiri chuckled. _'Is that a challenge?'_ When he didn't get an answer, he took it as a yes and pushed his way through the crowd after the boy.

Shuichi was sitting on an end barstool, already gulping down a shot of whiskey. He slammed the glass onto the counter when he saw Eiri shove his way out of the crowd and turned his attention to a poster that hung on the wall beside him. Eiri felt his lips twitch on their own and couldn't stop himself from walking over to him.

"Are you going to talk to me or ignore me?"

Shuichi didn't respond. Eiri sighed.

"What the hell did I do that was so bad?" he muttered as he took a seat next to the boy, finally making him turn his attention onto him. "That's all I want to know."

Shuichi laughed and waved the bartender down. The man refilled his shot glass and Shuichi downed it before he chose to respond.

"You left me, you fucker!" he growled. "That's what you did wrong. The moment I needed someone, you left me. You're just like everyone else. You left me and you lied to me."

Eiri sighed. "You still don't believe me, do you?"

Shuichi snorted and kept his eyes locked on the seemingly infinite amount of liquor bottles that lined the wall behind the bar. "No, I don't, and don't expect me to. I had to explain everything to Hiro and he still doesn't believe a damn thing that I said, so why should I believe you?"

"I know what you are, okay?" Eiri hissed through clenched teeth. "You're a dhampir, and I don't care. Kill me if you're going to kill me, but don't deny me."

Shuichi turned his eyes onto Eiri and the vampire froze from the amount of revulsion and hate in those amethyst depths. The boy growled and stood from his stool. He latched onto Eiri's arm and pulled him toward the door at the other end of the bar. He pushed him outside, into the pouring rain, and dragged him down the stairs.

When they reached the bottom he shoved Eiri against a wall and stared at him with a hate that chilled the vampire's bones.

"I'll kill you!" Shuichi snarled and jumped at the blonde. He tackled Eiri to the ground and wrapped his hands around his neck, squeezing tightly. For such a scrawny looking person, he packed the power of an ancient.

"You know what I am? You know what I am!" Tears were falling down his face and mixing with the rain, slurring his screams. "I could kill you right now without giving as much as a fuck! Is that what you want?"

Eiri shook his head. "No," he gasped. "I want you."

Shuichi burst into manic laughter and fell onto his side onto the dirty asphalt, releasing Eiri's neck. Eiri gulped down air and rubbed at the red welts that had already started to form on his throat.

"Stop fucking with my head!" Shuichi screamed through his laughter, burying his hands in his hair.

Eiri frowned and rested a hand on the boy's shoulder but he slapped it away.

"Don't fucking touch me! You only want me so you can use me!" he shouted. His face was red and contorted with anger. "When you're done with me you'll just toss me aside like a host you've milked dry."

Eiri shook his head and Shuichi fell into another fit of psychotic laughter.

"No?" He laughed again. "Then what will you do? Kill me and keep my head as a trophy? Keep me alive and in a cage so you can rent me out to other needy vampires?" Eiri shook his head and Shuichi rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. You can't possibly tell me that you love me."

Shuichi smirked when Eiri didn't answer and rolled his eyes again. "I don't have time for this," he said and pushed himself up from the ground.

Eiri watched helplessly as Shuichi walked away, tears of crimson that were smeared by the rain falling down his face. In a fit of blind anger and frustration he lifted himself up from the ground and ran after him. He caught up with Shuichi just before he reached the door and wrapped a hand tight around his wrist.

Shuichi screamed and tried to struggle out of his grasp, but Eiri wouldn't let him. His fingers formed claws and dug at the skin of Eiri's arms and he slashed his nails across his face, but the vampire still refused to let him go.

"I don't want to use you and I don't want to kill you. I sure as hell don't want to rent you out to other vampires who could use you to kill me," he whispered and slowly pulled Shuichi into his arms. The boy broke down into sobs against his chest. "I want you. I want you to tell me what happened to you and I want you to trust me."

Shuichi shook his head and muttered something that Eiri couldn't understand, and Eiri buried his in his pink hair, inhaling the sharp scent of rainy days and juniper that lingered there.

Eiri lifted Shuichi into a bridal-like embrace and carried him back to his house. The boy trembled and sobbed into his chest the entire trip. When he was standing outside Shuichi's door, he didn't bother to ask for a key. He sent his mind out to the locks on the other side and twisted them open with nothing more than a thought.

He quickly found the couch and laid Shuichi out on it. The boy curled up onto his side so he was facing away from Eiri and continued his crying, although it was more silent tears than anything now. Eiri sighed and searched the house for the bathroom and the bathroom for a washcloth. When he found what he was looking for, he doused the washcloth with warm water from the sink faucet and rang it out.

When he returned to the living room, Shuichi was sitting up and had his legs curled up to his chest. He glanced at Eiri when he walked back into the room and then turned away, squeezing his eyes closed. Eiri sighed and took a seat on the couch next to him.

He rested a hand on the boy's knee. "Here. Use this to clean your face off."

Shuichi reached out and grabbed the washcloth but didn't look at Eiri. He opened the towel to its full size and buried his face in it. Eiri couldn't help but smile at how innocent just the little gesture made him look. Little things like that were what reminded him that he was just a nineteen year old human. Dhampir, yes, but that didn't change the fact that he was a mortal human being.

Shuichi dropped the washcloth from his face and swallowed down a gulp of air. Then he finally turned his attention onto Eiri. His eyes weren't cold and angry and they weren't happy or relaxed. They were full of confusion and torment. Eiri sighed and placed a hand on Shuichi's knee.

"Do you want me to leave?" he whispered.

Shuichi shook his head and dropped it, burying his face in his hands. "I want to know what's wrong with me," he whispered. "Why am I so angry? Why do I always push everyone away? The only ones I keep are ones who understand. Artemis. Ryuichi. They're the only ones who really know what it's like to be born to kill."

Eiri shook his head. "No, they aren't. Just because one is a vampire, that doesn't change what they were before they were given the Gift."

Shuichi's shoulders tensed and he lifted his face from his hands to look at Eiri. The vampire smiled at him slightly and bowed his head.

"I know all too well what it's like to be born to kill. I was a dhampir, as was my father and his father before him and his father's father. I was born to a line of dhampirs. It's been in my family's blood for generations but now our family's legacy is dead. Both my brother and my sister are vampires, as well. The dhampir gene is dead."

A small laugh slipped past Shuichi's lips. "You're not lying. I'd be able to see it if you were. Your aura hasn't changed."

Eiri nodded. "No, I'm not lying."

"Why didn't you tell me this to begin with?" Shuichi whispered. "Why did you have to make me believe that you were just like everyone else? I treated you like everyone who's ever wanted to be close to me." He laughed quietly. "But you're just like Hiro, always pushing and shoving until you finally get your way."

Shuichi sighed and dropped his head again. "So, are you happy now? Now that you've gotten what you wanted, what are you gonna do?"

Eiri wrapped his arms around Shuichi and pulled the boy to him. Shuichi froze at first but soon relaxed to the point that he swung his leg around Eiri's hips so he was straddling his lap. He nuzzled his face into the vampire's neck and kissed him gently before he pulled away.

Shuichi stared deep into Eiri's eyes, looking for something that Eiri couldn't possibly fathom. The gesture made him nervous and giddy at the same time. Finally, Shuichi smiled and ran his hands gently down Eiri's chest, each touch driving the vampire closer and closer to the brink of insanity.

He couldn't take it anymore. Eiri caught Shuichi's lips up in a passionate kiss and their tongues fought for dominance. Shuichi's tongue chased his back into his mouth and they danced skillfully around the vampire's fangs, allowing only a prick and a single drop of blood to be shed.

Eiri moaned into the kiss as the delectably sweet copper substance that dripped down his throat and reclaimed the controls. His hands wandered beneath Shuichi's mesh shirt and he broke their kiss only long enough to lift the flimsy fabric over the boy's head.

Shuichi tossed his head backwards and Eiri began to attack his neck. He started with feather light kisses that barely left a trace, but those soon evolved into passionate nipping and sucking. He let his fangs graze along the perfect nape exposed before him but refused to break the skin unless Shuichi ordered him to do otherwise. He was at the boy's command, his pet.

"Do it," Shuichi whispered, the vibrations of his words through his throat sending chills through Eiri's body.

Eiri slipped a hand behind Shuichi's head and buried his fingers in the thatch of hair at the base of his neck. He kissed the pale skin gently.

"Please," Shuichi whined.

A quiet growl resonated through Eiri's throat. He grabbed onto the black chocker that kept him from his prize and tore it off. He threw the piece of ribbon to the ground and he bit down. Shuichi cried out in pain or pleasure or both and his fingers dug painfully into Eiri's shoulders. The sweet coppery liquid flowed out of Shuichi's skin and into Eiri's mouth, the flood of memories almost driving the vampire over the edge. There were images of Shuichi, Artemis, and a brunette man that he didn't know fighting of entire covens of vampires. Images of the man Shuichi had had to call Master. Images of a raven-haired man with yellow eyes, using the boy and training him in the correct ways to use his skills.

Eiri pulled away from Shuichi with a gasp and Shuichi fell forward, using the hands he'd clamped onto Eiri's shoulders as leverage to keep from collapsing. They were both breathing heavily and, when Eiri went to lick the wounds, Shuichi pushed him away again.

"No, don't."

Eiri furrowed his brow at him. "Why do you keep from healing you?"

Shuichi took a moment to catch his breath and smiled. "So I can piss off Ryuichi."

"Ryuichi?"

Shuichi nodded. "He's a friend of mine."

"Was he the brunette that I saw?" Shuichi nodded. "He's a dhampir. And so is Artemis, isn't she?"

Shuichi nodded again. "Yes. And they are my allies."

Eiri laughed. "And you like to piss Ryuichi off because…?"

Shuichi smiled sheepishly. "Because I know how to get under his skin easily. Show him a vampire bite and he'll go crazy. Artemis wishes I would stop, but I think it's funny."

Eiri shook his head and moved in to capture Shuichi's lips again. They fell sideways onto the couch, Eiri switching positions so he could be on top, and clothes were slowly removed.

While they made love Eiri took small drinks of Shuichi's blood, enjoying every pleasure filled scream that filled the house at the penetration of his skin. When they were finished Eiri used the washcloth that he'd gotten for Shuichi earlier to clean them off. Peacefully and silently, they both fell into a deep dreamless sleep, held safe from the outside world in each other's arms.

**-------------**

Somewhere in the deep depths of the Tokyo night scene, a raven-haired man threw his head back with a hearty laugh. He opened his cold, yellow-green eyes and smiled at the confused, red-haired man who stood across the desk from him.

"He has it," he said.

A large smile broke across the red-haired man's face and he clapped his hands together. "What's our next move, Mamoru?"

"I have to speak with the Elders," he said, "but the dhampir will be ours."  
The red-haired man nodded and left the room. The raven-haired man erupted into another bout of laughter. When he calmed, he flipped open the file that sat before him and stabbed his dagger through the candid photo of the blonde vampire he hated with a passion.

"Ready or not, little Eiri, here we come."

TBC…

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A/N: Hm…who are Mamoru and the red-haired guy with him? You'll find out…they're gonna be big players in this story and have past connections with all of the other vampires… And what about Shu's sudden change of heart? Man, he's got some problems, doesn't he? _shrugs_ Well…you would too if you suffered through the things that he's suffered through. And what were those things? Well…you'll find out that too… He, he. It'll all be clear soon, I promise…

Anyway, thanks to **DemonicDragon666, Ichigo Pocky, Suanne **(I know you only got to ch. 2 but oh well)**, animegirl12182, Hikaru Itsuka, DBZ luver2,** and **ku-chan **for all of your totally awesome reviews!I love you guys!...

Sorry for any typos and ja matta until the next chapter!…


	6. Chapter Five: The Premonition

I'm so sorry that it took so long for me to update. Damn…I hate that that's beginning to sound like a mantra for pretty much everything that I'm writing at the moment. Damned writer's block…

Anyway…I hope you forgive me and that this makes up for it just a smidge…

**Disclaimer:** Read last chapter's disclaimer…as far as I know, nothing's changed…

**Chapter Five  
The Premonition…**

The quiet rustle of clothing against skin startled him awake from his nightmare. Shuichi's eyes snapped open and he sat up on the couch, a warm blanket falling away from his chest. His eyes immediately settled on Eiri. He was pulling his black shirt over his shoulders and smiled at Shuichi softly.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I was trying not to wake you until I had to." He moved to the couch and kissed Shuichi on top of the head.

Shuichi sighed and closed his eyes. "You're not leaving, are you?"

Eiri laughed quietly. "I can't stay or the sun will kill me," he said. "You're welcome to come if you would like to."

Shuichi smiled and bounced up from the couch. "Of course, I want to."

Eiri smiled as Shuichi skipped off to his bedroom. He pulled out a normal pair of street clothes and threw them on, throwing a work outfit and other street clothes into his bag for the following night—or nights—to come. He picked the duffle bag up and swung it over his shoulder so the strap crossed his chest.

A splitting pain erupted in his head and Shuichi moaned quietly. He collapsed onto the floor and clutched his head tight in his hands, violent images invading his mind. Before he could stop it, a terrified scream ripped its way from the depths of his throat and he fell sideways onto the floor. Shuichi curled his body into the fetal position and held his knees to his chest. Tears that he didn't realize were falling dripped down his face.

Shuichi screamed again and buried his face in his hands. He didn't hear Eiri run into the room. He didn't even know that he was in the room with him until he felt the vampire force his hands away from his face.

"Your eyes!"

The look of horror on Eiri's face was enough to make Shuichi brush a hand against his eyes and look at it. Shuichi groaned and squeezed his eyes closed. His hands were covered in blood. Eiri lifted him into his arms and held him tight to his chest.

"What's going on?" Shuichi moaned, burying his face in Eiri's shirt.

Eiri made soft cooing sounds. "I don't know, but we're going to find out."

Shuichi nodded and nuzzled his face deeper into Eiri's chest. He didn't know what happened between the point of Eiri finding him and when they finally made it to their destination, but sometime during the time span Eiri had jumped outside and moved faster than Shuichi ever thought someone could. The next thing that he remembered after being lifted into the vampire's arms was the calm and familiar voice of a man.

He was lowered onto a couch and he barely heard Eiri's voice as he told the man of what he had seen. He hadn't seen the premonition, didn't know what was going to be coming for him in the near future. Shuichi tried to open his mouth and speak to tell Eiri what he had seen, but the vampire quieted him with a gentle hand back through his hair.

"I don't understand, Eiri. What happened?"

Eiri's hand left the confines of his hair and Shuichi focused in on the voice. Who was that? He knew that he had heard it before, but from where? Work? Had it just been some random person he'd passed on the street?

Shuichi moaned and lifted a hand to his forehead. His head hurt so bad that he could barely think straight. But he had to tell Eiri what he had seen in the vision. The vampire's life was in danger, as was the lives of many others, and he had to warn them.

Shuichi opened his eyes. His vision at first was blurry, full of misshapen objects and nausea, but it slowly cleared. When it became good enough for him to discern faces, Shuichi sat up and searched the room for Eiri. The vampire was sitting in a chair next to a hearth across the room from him. He was talking to someone that Shuichi couldn't see. The man's familiar voice lifted from the chair that had its back turned to him and Shuichi wracked his mind to remember who it was.

The boy shook his head and ran a shaking hand through his unruly hair. He jumped and held his hand out in front of his face. It was clean. He pressed his fingertips gently against his face and wasn't surprised to feel that his face wasn't sticky with blood either. Eiri had cleaned him up.

He sighed and rested his head against the back of the couch. He was still so confused about everything that had happened to him in his past and whether or not he should let the blonde vampire into his life or not, but Eiri had pushed and shoved and not given a damn what he'd wanted. Shuichi couldn't hold back his quiet chuckle. Just like Hiro, as he had told Eiri the night before. The auburn-haired man hadn't cared whether or not he'd never met Shuichi before in his life. He thought that the fact that he had been willing to give his own blood up to save Shuichi's life had been enough for the boy to open up to him.

Shuichi laughed, louder this time, and shook his head. The talking across the room stopped abruptly and Eiri turned and looked at Shuichi with relief on his face.

"You're awake," he said, sounding as if a hundred pound weight had been taken from his chest.

Shuichi nodded and smiled weakly. "Yeah. Now what the hell happened? Why was I crying blood?"

Quiet chuckling arose from the chair that was turned away from him and the man who sat in it finally stood up. He had clean kept, mid-length pale blonde hair, so pale that it was almost white. The flames in the hearth beside him danced in his eyes and made them look like glittering teal sapphires.

Shuichi tried and failed to stifle a gasp. "Seguchi Touma."

The man smiled and nodded. "Yes. How are you doing, Shindou?"

Shuichi shrugged. "I've had better days," he said and then turned his eyes to Eiri in question. "Why did you bring me here?"

Eiri sighed. "Touma has been my brother-in-law for over two hundred years. He knows everything that goes on during both the day and night. I thought that he of all people would know what had happened."

Touma frowned and turned to Eiri with surprise in his eyes. "Did you just…?"

Eiri nodded. "Yes, Touma. I did."

A smile bloomed across Touma's face and Shuichi couldn't keep his eyes from being immediately attracted to his two sharp canine teeth. But the smile wasn't cold like the smiles of other vampires. It wasn't full of hatred or anger toward mankind. It was like Eiri's. It radiated a sort of warmth that Shuichi had never imagined could come from a vampire. The only vampires that he had battled over the years had been soulless and had led him to believe that all vampires were soulless. The two vampires that stood before him were enough to prove that his initial thoughts had been wrong.

Touma turned his attention back onto Shuichi and the boy froze. The man's smile not only radiated warmth, it also radiated an intense amount of power. Whatever position that Touma held in the vampire community was a powerful one, of that he was certain.

Touma chuckled quietly and shook his head. "No, Shindou-san. I'm sorry to say that my role in the vampire community isn't a large one. I'm a coven leader, nothing more."

Shuichi felt a warm blush creep its way across his cheeks and Touma chuckled again. "It's alright. You don't have to be shy. I won't bite."

The warmth on Shuichi's cheeks increased and Touma, with the same smug smile, walked across the room and placed a hand beneath his chin. He gently lived Shuichi's chin and turned his face to the side so he could examine the two puncture wounds from only hours before.

A hearty chuckle filled the room again and Touma released Shuichi's chin. He turned back to Eiri. "Control yourself, boy," he said.

Surprisingly enough, Shuichi watched a small blush rise on Eiri's cheek and he couldn't keep a smile from twitching at his lips. Vampires with souls. Who would've thought that it could have been possible?

"Back on subject," Touma said, pulling Shuichi from his thoughts. "I can honestly say that I do not know why your tears fell as blood, Shindou-san, but I would desperately like to know what your premonition revealed."

Shuichi sighed and dropped his head. He knew that he question would have come sooner or later, but hoped that it would have arisen when it was just he and Eiri. He didn't know if he was ready to tell anyone else yet.

"Even if you were to tell Eiri at a personal moment in time, he would still have to report to me," Touma said. "He may not like it, but he'd have to do it."

Shuichi shook his head and closed his eyes, dropping his forehead into his hands. He felt the couch sink slightly beside him and he looked to his left to see Eiri sitting next to him. He rested a gentle hand on Shuichi's leg and moved it back and forth.

_'Don't worry, Love. He may be an asshole at times, but he's the only one who can help.'_

Shuichi sighed again and turned his face back toward his knees.

"War." The room fell silent at the barely audible word; even the fire in hearth seemed to mute itself. "I saw war between vampires and dhampirs alike. It wasn't between vampires and dhampirs per say, but dhampirs were fighting on the side of the vampires.

"I saw myself. I saw Artemis. I saw Ryuichi. The three of us and several other dhampirs I've never met were fighting along your sides."

An echoing silence filled the room before Touma opened his mouth.

"And who were we fighting, Shindou-san?"

Shuichi sighed and shrugged. "I dunno. I didn't recognize any of them." He sighed again and lifted his face from his hands so he could look at Touma's reaction.

The man nodded and propped his chin in his hand. "But what did they look like? Did you see any features?"

Shuichi closed his eyes and wracked his memory for the last remaining strands of the premonition. "One of the other vampires had red hair. Red hair and…" He paused for a moment to think. "…deep, soulless hazel eyes. The other that I saw well had black hair and...I didn't see his eyes."

Touma sighed and Shuichi opened his eyes to see the man looked worriedly at Eiri. Shuichi turned toward his lover and furrowed his brow as he nodded.

"What's going on? Who are they?" he asked, angry when heard the slight shake in his voice.

Touma closed his eyes and rested his forehead in a hand, his elbow propped up on the armrest. "The red-haired one is most likely Nobu Tetsuya, my sayre," he said. "If that's right then the other is Ichijouji Mamoru, an Elder and the sayre of both Nobu and Eiri's sayre, Kitazawa Yuki."

Shuichi heard Eiri sigh beside him and he turned to see that the vampire had closed his eyes and hung his head.

Another bout of silence filled the large office-like room. Shuichi was about to open his mouth to ask another question when footsteps echoed down the hallway and the door to the room was thrown open. A woman with long, brunette hair all but fell into the room and looked back and forth between the other three, worry plastered across her features.

"Touma," she gasped between breaths, "what's going on?"

Touma sighed and held his hand out toward the woman. "This is my wife, Seguchi Mika. She is also Eiri's elder sister."

Shuichi started and then remembered Eiri saying something about having an older sister and a younger brother. And, while he thought about it, the woman did look like Eiri with long, brown hair, grey eyes, and make-up. The family resemblance between them was uncanny.

Eiri chuckled quietly. "Just wait until you meet my younger brother," he whispered.

Shuichi sighed, infuriated at himself for letting yet another person slid into his mind without noticing, but he shoved it aside. There were other issues that needed to be dealt with at the moment. He didn't have time to wallow in self-pity.

"What is going on, Touma?" Mika repeated and walked into the room, closing the door behind her. She crossed the room pulled the chair that Eiri had been sitting in before hand over to her husband's side. She fidgeted with the cloth of her skirt, pulling it down and fixing it, before she finally sat down and stared at Touma expectantly.

Touma sighed. "This is Shindou Shuichi," he said.

Shuichi saw the woman's shoulders tense slightly and he furrowed his brow. She turned her eyes to him and looked him over with a critical eye before finally turning to her brother. "I see what you meant," she said.

Shuichi turned to Eiri just in time to see the smallest hint of a smile disappearing from his lips. He wanted to ask what she meant, but Touma had already started on a different topic.

"He's had vision with strange side effects. You're the master on preternatural medicine and illnesses. He's not a vampire, we know that, but he started crying blood during his vision."

Mika listened intently to Touma speak and then nodded before turning her attention to Shuichi again. "What did you see?"

"A war," he repeated. "A violent, bloody war that was full of death."

She nodded and closed her eyes. Shuichi could tell that she was lost in the deep depths of her mind, trying to find an answer for the crimson tears. After a few minutes she sighed and opened her eyes again. She smiled and looked at Shuichi kindly.

"I don't think it's anything to worry about. It's just the vampire in your blood coming through."

Shuichi furrowed his brow and cocked his head to the side. "Then why hasn't it ever happened before?"

Mika shrugged. "You're in the peak of your powers and acceptance of what you are. You'll notice that your senses will become sharper over the next few days. It's only the vampire in your blood surfacing so it's nothing to worry about." Shuichi nodded and opened his mouth to ask a question but she was already ahead of him. "The blood tears will only arise when you are feeling a very intense emotion or during a strong premonition. Like I said, it's nothing to worry about."

Shuichi sighed and hung his head. This was all too much for him to take in at one time. He was a vampire killer, but Mika was saying that his blood tears were from the vampire waking up inside of him? Wouldn't that mean that he was killing his own kind in a way? He buried his hands in his hair and shook his head.

"What's wrong, Love?"

Shuichi sighed again. "Father never told me that dhampirs were born of vampires."

A stunned silence filled the room before Eiri placed a gentle hand on Shuichi's shoulder. "Yes. You weren't born of a vampire, but at some time in your family's history a female was impregnated by a vampire and the first dhampir of your family was born. The gene has been passed through your family since then."

Shuichi shook his head and closed his eyes. "I need some sleep."

Eiri's arms wrapped around him and Shuichi's was soon lifted from where he sat on the couch.

"Where are you going, Eiri?" It was Touma.

"He needs sleep. I'm going to take him home."

Touma chuckled quietly. "Let him sleep here. Our talk wasn't finished."

A small smile tugged at Shuichi's lips. Even though he couldn't see it, he knew that Eiri was giving Touma a death glare that the platinum blonde would just shove aside with a shrug.

"He'll sleep on the couch." The finality in Touma's voice couldn't be missed.

Eiri sighed and Shuichi was soon returned to the velvet sofa he'd woken on. "I won't talk in here," Eiri said.

A gentle hand was placed against Shuichi's head and he cracked his eyes to see Eiri smiling down upon him. "I'll keep my mind open. Call if you need anything," he said.

Shuichi nodded and let his heavy eyelids slip shut. He was asleep before the door closed.

**-------------**

He was running…again. Would it ever stop? The only difference was, this time, the dark, shadowy walls of the alleyways were replaced by the bleak, moonlit walls of a hospital corridor. He was dressed in a hospital gown and his bare feet made quiet clapping sounds against the marble floor that seemed deafeningly loud in the eerie silence of the hallways.

He turned a corner and felt his eyes widen. A sign over a door glowed with the green words "EXIT" at the end of the hallway. He smiled and took off toward the door, his only escape from his place unless he wanted to jump to his death from a window, something that was growing more and more appealing as each seemingly endless day passed by.

Faster than he would have thought possible, Shuichi reached the door. He reached for the handle, but froze, moving his hand beneath his chin instead. This was all too easy. Either something was going to be waiting for him on the other side of the door to capture him, or some kind of trap would go off and kill him the moment his hand touched the cool metal of the handle. And he was sure to be caught if he turned around and just gave up. No! He wouldn't give up now. He would fight off whoever was waiting for him on the other side of the door.

"Where do you think you're going, little one?" a quiet voice asked from behind him.

Shuichi tensed at the sound, his entire body growing ridged. He crossed his arms over his chest and turned to face the person behind him. His yellow eyes seemed to glow in the moonlight as he started Shuichi down.

"Father." Shuichi acknowledged the man with a small bow, his eyes never leaving his. "What a surprise it is to see you. I would have thought that you be home at this time of night."

The man smiled coldly. "Now, you and I both know that I never leave the hospital." He took a step toward Shuichi. "And I would have expected you to be asleep in your room like a good little boy, not trying to escape like some kind of trapped dog."

Shuichi grimaced at the man's declaration, straightening quickly and glaring at him coldly. "But isn't that what I am? A trapped dog?" He laughed emotionlessly. "You picked me up from the street like I was some sort of stray and I have yet to set foot outside in the two months since you've brought me here. If I'm not a trapped dog, then what am I, pray tell?"

The man hissed, exposing a generous amount of fang in the process. Shuichi laughed and brought of his hands up to place a thoughtful finger beneath his chin, as if he was remembering something.

"Oh, that's right. I'm a trapped _attack_ dog, aren't I? Well, attack dog in-training apparently, since I have yet to see any real action."

The man smiled and cocked his head to the side innocently, but Shuichi knew him well enough than to fall for it. The man he called "Father" took a step toward him, and he took a step back. The process continued until Shuichi ran into the door behind him, a small growl slipping past is lips. Father chuckled quietly and was at his side faster than the boy could blink, one of his wrists gripped painfully in a hand. His other hand went up and encircled Shuichi's throat, slamming him back against the door. He growled and barred his fangs dangerously, making a shiver ripple through Shuichi's body.

"I save you from your retched life on that vile farm and this is how you thank me?" He tightened his grip on Shuichi's throat. "I should have killed you the moment I saw you, but I didn't. Do you want to know why I didn't kill you, little Shu-chan?" His face was maddeningly close to Shuichi's and the boy nodded in fear. Father smiled. "I kept you alive because I saw potential in you. I know that you have what it takes to take care of those I want killed and to do it in a way that won't draw attention to yourself. I kept you alive because I know, without a doubt, that you are a lethal killer, quite possibly one of the most lethal on the face of the planet."

He stepped away from Shuichi and finally loosened his grip around his throat, although he didn't let go. Shuichi took a deep breath and stared back at the man in defiance. Father chuckled and disappeared.

"Get back to your room, little one, before I have to do it by force."

Shuichi growled and kicked the wall closest to him…hard, ignoring the pain that ignited across his nerves from his now broken toe. He smiled triumphantly and walked as normal back to his room. If he couldn't leave this place, then he would at least piss Father off to the best of his abilities.

He made it back to his room and closed the door behind him, hearing it click as Father locked it behind him. Shuichi smiled at the door and turned his back to it, crossing his arms and sitting on the oversized window sill. He gazed out the window at the quarter moon that shined in the sky above.

His skin tingled beneath its rays, as it always did, but it was much stronger in the light of a full moon. Too bad the full moon had just passed or his foot would heal much faster than it was going to have to. He examined the toe thoroughly, grabbing on to it and pulling it back into somewhat of the proper alignment. He didn't even cringe at the loud pop that filled the room and his body was still numbed from his encounter with Father so he didn't feel any pain.

Sighing, he stood from the window and crawled into his bed. He would escape from the hospital once he had received all of his training and he would get his revenge on Father and Master and anyone who had hurt him in his past. His day was coming soon and the entire world would know it when it came.

**-------------**

He awoke with a strangled cry of Eiri's name, shooting up into the sitting position as he did so. His eyes wildly searched the room he was in, recognizing nothing yet everything all at the same time. Quiet chuckling from somewhere behind him made him whip around and everything was suddenly settled into place.

"Your boyfriend isn't here right now. Although, I'm waiting for him to come and try to kill us for stealing away his most precious valuable." The brunette standing in the window turned his eyes on to Shuichi and smiled.

Shuichi frowned and yawned loudly, stretching his arms out in front of him. "You talk as if I am just another possession to him," he accused, glaring at Ryuichi coldly.

Ryuichi laughed and shrugged. "I've never been in love, much less in love with a filthy vampire." He strode across the room and lifted Shuichi's chin, examining the two puncture wounds there with a quiet "tut" of disapproval. "You sicken me sometimes."

Shuichi smiled and eyed his friend innocently. "As if you don't do anything that angers me. Like stealing me away from my lover, for example."

More quiet laughter and Shuichi turned his attention to the doorway, where Artemis was entering with a tray of tea and biscuits. "He has a good point, Ryu."

Ryuichi scowled at the woman before turning his back on both of them and retreating back to the window to stare out at the beautiful blue sky. Shuichi sighed. Blue sky. Sunlight. That meant that Eiri was locked away in the depths of sleep. He couldn't help but laugh when he wondered where he was. He knew that Eiri wouldn't have stayed put when he realized that he was missing. He would have started searching immediately.

"Here." Artemis poured a cup of tea and handed the steaming cup to him. He took it gratefully and held it clenched between his hands, letting the cup warm his icy fingers. He waited a few minutes for it to cool before taking a sip from it.

"You were talking in your sleep," Artemis stated as she sipped from her own cup of tea. Ryuichi's sat on the table, waiting for him to come and drink it. "You kept saying things about Father."

Shuichi sighed and slouched back into the couch, his head resting against the back of it. He closed his eyes to remember what he had been dreaming about, but nothing would surface except for a pair of icy yellow eyes. Not warm and golden like Eiri's, but cold and yellow. They were more of a yellow-green color actually. He grumbled in frustration and took another sip of tea, letting its warmth calm his tense muscles and nerves.

"You don't remember anything of it, do you? Like usual?"

Shuichi shook his head. "Nope. Not a bit." He sat forward and placed his half full cup on the table, resting his forehead in his hands instead. "Why is that? It's obvious that I'm dreaming about a past that I can hardly remember. These dreams are supposed to trigger something in me, to make me remember everything that happened, yet they dissipate the moment I open my eyes." He growled and looked at Artemis for help. "And it's frustrating as hell."

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered telling Hiro everything about his past only a few days before. He growled and hit himself in the forehead with the palm of his hand. If he had been able to tell Hiro, then why couldn't he remember it now? Could he only remember when the planets were in some kind of certain alignment or something? Was a miracle needed for him to remember even only a face from his past? He sighed and slouched into the couch again, watching Artemis intently.

The woman smiled and brushed a lock of her raven hair over her shoulder, taking another sip from her cup of tea. "Ryu, come drink your tea, please."

Ryuichi turned and glared at her, but obeyed nonetheless. They all obeyed when it came to Artemis. She was what Shuichi liked to call the "middle sibling" in their family of misdirected dhampirs, yet she had the most reasonable head on her. She was the one who forced Shuichi and Ryuichi to sit and think things through when they just wanted to jump headfirst into action. She was the reason they were still alive. Well, for some part, anyway.

Ryuichi sat next to Shuichi on the couch and sipped silently from his cup of tea, eyeing Artemis expectantly the entire time. Shuichi looked back and forth between the two with a furrowed brow until Ryuichi sighed and set his cup on the table in front of him.

"Shu…" He stopped for a moment with a furrowed brow and glanced at Artemis. Shuichi saw her nod out of the corner of his eye and that seemed to give Ryuichi the push he needed. He continued after taking a deep breath. "Shu…I think it's time for you to remember… Everything…"

TBC…

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

A/N: Mwuhahahahahahahahahaha! Such an evil little writer I am, leaving you at a cliff hanger like that. I know that I told you that Shu would be telling Hiro his past in this chapter, but as you can see, I changed that up at bit. But you _will_ hear Shu's past in chapter seven, and no false promises this time. _:salutes:_ I really need to get it all down on paper. It's not happy, as you probably know already, and it won't be a complete tale since Ryuichi isn't Shuichi and only he can know everything that happened. And, as always, more will be revealed in Shuichi's dreams as the story progresses…

After this chapter, I'm putting this story on hiatus until I finish "ILaH". I need to think out Touma and Eiri's conversation a little more instead of just letting it flow. I know that I should just let it come as it wants to, but I want to make Touma into the person that he really is behind the mask. Who that person is, you'll find out next chapter…

And how did you like Ryu? I know that he's WAY out of character, but I like him a lot. I also love Artemis's character. She'll be a big player in the story to come, so look for more from her instead of just in the random workplace scene. And Ryuichi will have more of a role, as well…

Anywho…thanks, guys, for all of your wonderful reviews. They keep me going, even if I'm not the fastest person in the world when it comes to updating lately. _:sighs:_ Once again, I apologize for that…

Sorry or any typos and I'll see you next chapter…_:waves:_… Ja matta ne minna!...


	7. Chapter Six: The Past

Welp…here I go on chapter six. About time, right? Hehe... _::sighs::_ Wish me luck…

The sections in _italics_ are Eiri's memories…

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _Gravitation_…

**Chapter Six:  
The Past…**

Eiri followed Touma through the hallways of the oversized house in silence, his heart pounding in his chest and his thoughts circling. As far as he knew, he had made it clear to Touma that their conversation had been over the moment Shuichi had woken from his slumber. He was curious to know what else Touma thought they needed to discuss, but was hesitant as well. Touma had a habit of reopening old wounds that Eiri had been trying to heal for years when they had one-on-one conversations. He wasn't looking forward to shedding any new blood, either in the mental or physical sense.

His thoughts were cut off as Touma made a sharp right turn through an open door. Eiri paused for a moment outside the room and sighed, running a hand back through his hair.

"I don't have all day, Eiri," Touma muttered from inside the room, hints of anger laced through his voice.

Eiri sighed and shook his head, and resigning to his fate, entered the room. Touma was already seated in one of the armchairs and had a fire roaring in the hearth. His kind eyes watched Eiri with a hint of annoyance, disappointment, and fury, but his lips held the same know-it-all grin that they always did. He barely gave his fellow vampire the time to get comfortable in his chair before he started in on him.

"How long?"

Eiri started and blinked a couple of times, his brow furrowed and a frown on his lips. "How long, what?"

"How long were you planning on hiding him from me?" Anger swelled in Touma's voice and it made Eiri's ears ring, even though it was barely above a whisper.

"I wasn't hiding him from you, Touma. I only just found him."

Touma laughed and scowled upon Eiri. "Don't play me for dumb, Eiri. You've had the dhampir in your possession for weeks now." He laughed again when he looked at Eiri. "Your sister is my wife. She tells me these kinds of things, whether you like it or not."

Eiri sighed and shook his head. It was the truth. He didn't know what part of his mind had thought that he could get away the lie, but it had been worth a try. But there was no way that he was going to give Shuichi over to Touma, even now that the blonde knew that he had him and would probably do everything in his power to get him. Eiri knew that Touma would kill him if it meant getting his hands on the dhampir.

"I know what you want, Touma, but you're not going to get him. I can't give him to you. Not without a fight."

Touma laughed and it was a cold sound from deep within his throat. The sound was so unlike him that Eiri had to double take to prove that it was indeed his brother-in-law who sat in front of him.

"You want to fight me? Over that damned boy?" He laughed again, wiping a tear from his cheek with a delicate finger. "You always were a jokester, weren't you, Eiri-kun."

Eiri narrowed his eyes and frowned. "I'm not lying, Touma. I refuse to just hand Shuichi over to you when you know nothing about him."

"Oh. And let me guess, you know everything about him, don't you?" Touma smiled and leaned forward in his chair. "Don't tell me that the two of you sit up late at night and share stories of your tragic pasts, crying on each others shoulder when it all becomes too much." He rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair. "No. That's not it. I know you better than to think that you shared anything of your past with him. You're too locked up in your own poor, pitiful me mind to trust anyone."

Eiri growled quietly and Touma laughed heartily. To say that Eiri hated his brother-in-law would have been a lie because he really didn't and found it hard to believe that he would ever be able to. Touma had been the one to help him after _he_ had been taken care of and had been the one who had kept Eiri pieced together for so long. But he couldn't deny that he disliked Touma. He was annoying and pompous, two things that Eiri hated the most.

"I want him, Eiri."

He shook his head. "No. I will not give Shuichi to you without fighting you first. The only reason you want him is so you can intimidate the other clans and get them to back off for a while. He'll be of no help against Mamoru and Nobu."

Touma chuckled quietly and shook his head, his brilliant green eyes shining with secrecy. "He will be Mamoru's downfall. I'll make sure of it!" There was a deep, feral tone in his voice that sent a shiver rippling down Eiri's spine.

"I won't allow it!" Eiri growled and stood from his seat. He gave Touma a sharp glare before storming toward the door.

The moment his hand touched the cool handle of the doorknob, an electric shockwave of pain shot down Eiri's spine. He screamed and collapsed to the ground, his hand still holding onto the handle in a death grip. His body writhed and convulsed on the floor, and sweat broke out across his brow. His mind faded in and out of darkness while old memories attempted to resurface.

"Fuck you, Touma!" he growled. "Go to hell."

The blonde stood above him with a soft smile on his face. "I'm already there."

With one more twitch of power, Eiri was carried off in the current of darkness, cursing Touma the entire way.

**-------------**

_Amber eyes opened slowly, immediately losing themselves in the honey brown of the person's in front of him. The boy squinted, trying to focus on the man's face and not just his eyes. When he finally retrieved enough strength to sit up, the other man just smiled and looked off toward the horizon._

"_You did well for your first time, Eiri-kun," the man said, returning his gaze to the blonde boy. "You fought it much longer than I expected."_

"_And it would have been longer if you hadn't have increased the strength," the boy snapped, running a pale hand through his sweat slicked hair. "Why did you do that, sensei?"_

"_It was just a little test, Eiri. Nothing else. A test of strength. And you passed." The man smiled when he said this, obviously pleased with the boy's progress._

"_But you could have killed me!"_

_The brunette's eyes widened for a moment then softened as the man reached out and brushed the boy's cheek with his knuckles. "Oh, no. I would never think of killing you, my Eiri." The possessive look in his eyes made Eiri melt inside._

'I'm his,'_ he thought, a small blush creeping up his cheeks. _'His…'

_The man smiled and stood from under the tree they had taken shade under earlier that day for the lesson. The boy followed suit, brushing the dirt from the back of his pants before jogging to catch up with the brunette. The man didn't look up when the blonde caught up with him, just held out his hand, which the boy gratefully took._

_The two walked in silence for a while—student and teacher, brother and brother, giver and taker—until the boy stopped. The brunette turned in annoyance but stopped when he saw the troubled look on the boy's furrowed brow._

"_What is it, Eiri-kun?" the man asked, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders and kneeling so they were at eye level._

"_What—" the boy stopped, his pained expression deepening before he continued. "Would you ever kill me?"_

_The question and cold look in the boy's eyes startled the tutor, but he recovered quickly, covering his surprise with kindness and compassion. "Of course not! Why would you ever think such a thing?"_

"_You mean, not purposely. What if you overexerted and that killed me?" The pain in the boy's voice startled the man once again, but, as before, he recovered quickly._

"_The only reason I tried today was because I knew that you could handle it," he said reassuringly. "I stopped the moment you lost consciousness. I would never risk your life."_

_The boy smiled, relishing in the protectiveness that seemed to radiate from his teacher, and the man smiled back, his eyes crinkling slightly at the corners. They started walking again, the teacher making his daily rounds of walking his student home. But was it really home? Seguchi was nice enough, but offered love that the boy didn't return. No, the boy's home was in Japan._

_Sighing as the apartment building came into view, the brunette squeezed Eiri's hand tightly and smiled down at the blushing boy. They reached the small set of stairs that lead up to the building's main lobby and stopped._

"_Tomorrow?" the boy asked._

_The tutor nodded. "Tomorrow."_

_The boy grinned brightly and slipped his hand from his tutor's, hugging him quickly, before running up the stairs and into the building, waving a goodbye over his shoulder._

**-------------**

His eyes started to itch and burn as he drifted aimlessly through the darkness, his mind in harsh battle for freedom with his brother-in-law.

'_Say Uncle…'_ Touma chuckled.

'_Fuck you!'_ he growled.

'_If you insist…'_

Another burst of power made Eiri double over in pain. He held his hands over his stomach and clenched his eyes closed, biting his tongue to hold back the scream that threatened to tear out of his throat. The tears he'd fought to hold back after his first memory now spilled over and fell down his cheeks, dripping off to disappear into the endless darkness.

**-------------**

_A pain like wildfire spread across his senses. His body felt like it was on fire and he thought for sure that the pain was the feeling of his skin burning from his body, peeling back and disappearing to leave only blood and bone. He curled into the fetal position on the cold floor beneath him and screamed, clutching his head in his hands as a terrible screeching filled his ears._

_His back arched and he threw his head back as another scream was ripped from his throat. Pain…so much pain. His chest ached and his head pounded. His mouth felt like he'd just gotten punched but there was no blood. He world beyond his open eyes wobbled and blurred, then became brighter. Every color, every shade, and every tone seemed to explode in a million flashes of light._

_He saw movement in the corner of his eye and looked to see what it was. His teacher was there, his back pressed against the wall and a sick smile on his face, blood running down his chin and staining his clothes. _His_ blood._

_He reached out to his teacher with a shaking arm but the man's smile only grew. He shook his head and stood from the ground. Eiri watched him in terror as he went to the door and left, closing the wooden barrier behind him. No doubt the young man's cries couldn't be heard outside of the room. _

"_Why, Yuki-san? Why?" he screamed. "Yuki-san!!"_

_There was no reply, not even the smallest mental tap. Tears poured down the young man's face and blurred his bright new vision. Another pain shot through his head and made it feel like it was about to explode. He wanted to scream, but when he opened his mouth to do it nothing came out._

_And then, as fast as it had happened, it stopped. The pain disappeared and his shaking stopped. Instead, his eyes flashed open and seemed to glow in the moonlight. The graffiti on the walls of the dilapidated apartment was blindingly bright, and the scent of mildew and death made him gag._

_Slowly, Eiri pushed himself into the sitting position and then to his feet, surprised when he didn't wobble and almost fall to the ground. He ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, he wasn't the same person he'd been when the night had started. There was nothing but blood lust and a want for revenge in his eyes. A power like nothing he had ever felt before surged through his veins._

_Eiri held his hands up in front of him and examined them in the moonlight. It seemed to glow and with his new vision he could clearly see the blood pumping through the veins beneath the skin. He looked into the mirror across the room and furrowed his brow at his reflection. He looked exactly the same. Why hadn't he changed? Wasn't he supposed to have transformed into some hideous monster?_

_He opened his mouth and ran a finger over his two elongated and sharp incisors. He touched the tip of one of them and hissed as the gentle pressure pierced his flesh. The blood welled up in the wound and quickly spilled down his hand and to the floor._

_Clapping. "Good job, my Eiri."_

_The young blonde growled and turned to the doorway. He hadn't even heard the door open. His tutor and friend stood against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest and a smile on his face. He pushed away from the door when he noticed Eiri's eyes on him and strolled into the room._

"_I knew that you would be the perfect one. You're now your family's worst enemy. How does it feel?" he smirked as he stopped across from the blonde. "Are you angry?"_

_An audible growl slipped past Eiri's lips and Kitazawa's smile grew. For the first time, Eiri saw the flash of the vampire's fangs in the moonlight. It sent a shiver down his spine._

"_There's no need for you to be angry with me, Eiri-kun. It _is_ what you wanted, after all."_

"_What I wanted?" Eiri's anger grew inside his chest until he felt like he could explode. "What in your twisted mind made you think that I wanted this, Kitazawa?"_

_The man frowned at the sudden formality in his friend. "Does 'I want to stay with you forever' ring any bells in that little head of yours?" Eiri's eyes widened. "Yes, I see that it does. Well…now you have what you wanted. You can stay with me for eternity. There's no way for anyone to separate us." Kitazawa held out his hands and beckoned Eiri toward him._

_The blonde closed his eyes and walked into the embrace, sighing when Kitazawa's arms closed around him. He rested his head on the crook of Kitazawa's shoulder and took a deep breath. The man laughed quietly._

"_See, Eiri-kun. We can stay like this forever no…—" _

_He gagged loudly and blood spurted from his mouth, splattering into Eiri's hair and onto their shirts. Eiri stepped back and held his hand out for Kitazawa to see the still beating heart that sat perched in his palm. The brunet man looked back and forth between the heart and Eiri, disbelief on his face._

"_What have you done?"_

"_Fuck you, Kitazawa. How could you do this to me? And without my consent! Fuck you!"_

_Eiri threw the heart onto the ground and dug around in his pants' pocket. He pulled out a book of matches and struck one against the flint. It lit with a loud scraping noise. Eiri glanced at Kitazawa and smiled._

"_NO!" the brunet cried._

_Eiri dropped the match and the flammable blood was ignited immediately. Kitazawa screeched in pain and fell to his knees, his hands clenched over the gaping hole in his chest. The scent of burning flesh quickly filled the room, but Eiri refused to turn away. He deserved to watch this man die more than anyone else in the world. _

_Kitazawa's body stopped writhing across the floor as the fire burned out. The heart was nothing but a dark smear of ashes on the floor. Eiri stared at the spot…and stared…and stared… He fell to his knees and ran a shaking finger through the black smear. He examined the stain on his finger and his entire body began to shake. A pain-filled scream tore out of his throat and echoed in the silent apartment. Red stained tears ran down his face and splattered across the hardwood floor._

_He moved his attention from the black smear to the motionless body on the floor seven feet away from him. The man had fallen on his stomach, hiding the hole in his chest. The pain on his face made it look like he had died from a heart attack._

_Footsteps echoed somewhere in the distance, but Eiri didn't pay attention to them. He kept his eyes locked on the body before him and the blood that had pooled on the floor, his blood tears still falling._

"_Eiri…"_

_The blonde gasped and looked to the doorway. This time it was Touma standing there with a panicked look on his face. The man took a slow step toward Eiri before breaking into a run. He collapsed onto his knees at Eiri's side._

_Eiri took the first comfort offered to him and fell into Touma's arms, sobbing painfully into the man's chest. Touma held him gently and whispered words of condolence into the boy's ear. Sometime in the cold New York night, Eiri's tears stopped, but by then he was already asleep._

**-------------**

He awoke with a loud gasp, his body jumping into the upright position of its own accord. His eyes wildly searched the room around him for something—anything—familiar, something that would take away the reality of the hell he'd been forced to wander through. A familiar head of platinum blonde hair rose above the back of a chair, though the person hadn't moved.

Eiri blinked and pushed himself up from the couch in silence. He walked up behind Touma with a vicious frown on his face.

"Don't try anything, Eiri."

He froze and let his clawed hands fall limply to his sides. Touma sighed and turned to look at the other vampire with a frown on his face and pain in his eyes. Eiri frowned and furrowed his brow.

"What happened? Why did you set me free?"

Touma sighed again and returned his gaze to the flames that danced in the hearth. "Shuichi ran away, or rather, was kidnapped. We didn't realize until it was too late. We can't find him. His scent has faded."

Eiri's eyes widened and he followed his first instinct and ran toward the open door. The heavy oak slammed in his face just as he got to it and not even his most powerful mental attacks would get it to open again.

"Goddamn you, Touma! What is your problem? If anyone can find him, it's me. Now, let me go!" He futilely shook the knob and pounded on the door.

"I can't let you go, Eiri. You're acting on impulse. You need to calm down and think rationally. Then I'll let you out of the room."

The younger vampire growled loudly and glared at his superior. Touma sighed and shook his head, running a pale hand back through his equally pale hair.

"Shindou-kun wasn't taken by force. We think that it was his kin took him away."

Eiri threw a glass decanter full of whiskey across the room. It shattered against the wall and the brown liquid inside fell in rivulets down the wood paneling.

"You see? Calm down." Touma settled down into his armchair and kept his eyes on Eiri. "And it's no good to go rushing after Shindou-kun, anyway. I know as well as you do that he needs to be with people of his own kind, those who can tell him about the past he can't remember. You know that he needs this."

Eiri closed his eyes and took several deep stabilizing breaths, not opening his eyes until he felt his blood cool and his anger disappear. He sighed and fell down into the nearest chair, resting his forehead in his hands. Touma chuckled, but Eiri didn't look up.

"You really do care for him, don't you?"

He nodded. "He's reminds me of myself at that age."

Touma chuckled again. "Only you were much more stupid." Eiri jerked his eyes up and glared at his brother-in-law, but he just smiled. "He doesn't look like it, but he's much stronger than you ever were. You know that. And you also know that he won't hesitate to kill you if he's faced with it, no matter how much he claims to care for you."

"I know…" Eiri ran a hand back through his hair and slouched back into the chair. "How long?"

Touma laughed, and Eiri knew that it had been because of his choice of words. What a better way to end a conversation than with how they had begun?

"Wait at least an hour, maybe two. We don't know when he was taken or when he woke up, if he even has yet. You need to give them time to tell at least some of his story in case something small triggers his memories. Can you sit still for that long?"

Eiri rolled his eyes. "Yes. I'm going to try and contact him mentally, though. I want to know where he is."

Touma nodded, and Eiri closed his eyes, focusing all of his attention on the signature he'd had memorized for what felt like his entire life.

'_Where are you, Love? Are you alright?'_

The words traveled through the mental link, but bounced off an invisible barrier Shuichi had erected around his mind. No. Shuichi hadn't built it up. Eiri growled and opened his eyes. It had to have one of the boy's lackeys.

'_Hold on, Shuichi. I'll come for you soon.'_

TBC…

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: An eternity later and here's chapter six…_::sighs::_ Sorry it took so long, but I had to prioritize and "ILaH" was more important. But now it's finished and now I can continue on this. HURRAH!!! I've decided on 15 chapters for this story, with a possible sequel if you all want one when the time comes. And, unlike with "ILaH," I have the rest of this fic planned out so I know what I want to happen and where I want to end…no surprises for myself…Hehe…

Anyway, thank you to you guy who reviewed. You all know who you are. I'm sorry I can't think of your names at the moment. _::sighs::_ But you're all great and all that totally awesome jazz… _::hugs you all::_…

Alrighty…until next chapter, adieu…


	8. Chapter Seven: The Truth

Now it's time for the moment you've all been waiting for…Shu's past…or at least some of it..._::hides under desk::_...

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the characters from _Gravitation_, but the other characters belong to me…

**Chapter Seven:  
The Truth…**

Ryuichi sat next to Shuichi on the couch and sipped silently from his cup of tea, eyeing Artemis expectantly the entire time. Shuichi looked back and forth between the two with a furrowed brow until Ryuichi sighed and set his cup on the table in front of him.

"Shu…" He stopped for a moment with a furrowed brow and glanced at Artemis. Shuichi saw her nod out of the corner of his eye and that seemed to give Ryuichi the push he needed. He continued after taking a deep breath. "Shu…I think it's time for you to remember… Everything…"

Artemis sighed. Shuichi turned to look at her but she turned her face away from him, focusing her attention out the window. He furrowed his brow and returned his attention to Ryuichi, who was sipping at his tea again with his eyes locked on Artemis.

"Why?" The question seemed to echo in the silence.

Ryuichi smiled and set his cup down on the table. "Do you not want to know about what happened to you to make you the way you are today? You can be such a heartless bastard sometimes, you know."

Shuichi frowned and looked to Artemis for help but she still refused to look at him. He sighed and shook his head. "No. I want to know, but why are you going to tell me? _How_ are you going to tell me? You didn't know me until the compound so how do you know?"

Ryuichi smiled furtively. The look sent a shiver rippling down Shuichi's spine. "You interested me. As you know, I was one of Father's closest assistants. He granted us access to the charts and files of 'patients' at times. I wanted to learn more about you."

Shuichi scowled. "You read my personal files?"

"Hey. Artemis read them too so you can't only be pissed at me for not telling you." He held his hands in front of him defensively.

Shuichi growled and looked away from him, back toward Artemis. She was watching him and didn't look away this time. Her pale green eyes searched his face before she sighed and nodded.

"He's right. He shared the files with me and I read them. Your past was…tragic, to say the least." She frowned and furrowed her brow. "But I still never discovered how you managed to forget everything. It may just be that the small human part of your mind kicked in, giving you a kind of amnesia, but I'm not so sure. Father may have done something, but there's no way to find out."

Shuichi snorted. "How can you still call him that?"

Artemis glared at him. "It's not like he gave us any other name to address him by. What would you like me to call him, pray tell?"

"Bastard? Ass wipe? The man who ruined our lives? Anything but _Father_."

She shook her head and ran a hand back through her long hair, shaking it out of her face. "I don't understand why you hate him so."

"And I don't remember much about it, but I can't understand why you seem to think that he actually loved us."

Artemis's cheeks flushed in anger. She opened her mouth to retort but Ryuichi quickly interrupted her, silencing her complaints with a glare.

"Father isn't the problem at hand at the moment. Do you want to know what happened to you or not, Shuichi? I'm not going to sit here and wait for you two to finish arguing. I've got better things to do."

Shuichi glared at him. "And let me guess, telling me about my past is a waste of your time as well? Why don't you just go fuck yourself and leave me alone, Ryu? I'm sick of you acting like you're big and bad. You're just the same as the rest of us. Stop pretending!"

Ryuichi snorted and stood from the couch. "I don't have time to deal with whiny little insensitive brats," he muttered and walked to the door. "Call me when he's got his head out of his ass." The slam of the front door echoed through the apartment soon after and let them know that he was gone.

Artemis sighed and gathered the tea cups, replacing them on the tray. She stood and glanced at Shuichi out of the corner of her eye. "I'll be right back. Don't disappear on me, please."

Shuichi rolled his eyes and watched her leave the room. He sighed when he was finally left alone in peace and quiet. His anger was still raging around inside of him, but it confused him. What had gotten him so riled up? Sure, Ryuichi had the tendency to piss him off quite a bit, but he'd done and said worse things in the past.

He sighed and ran a hand back through his hair, willing the anger to calm. It did calm, but it didn't disappear. It boiled beneath the surface of his skin, just waiting for the right moment to come back again, and when it did, he knew that he wouldn't be able to control it.

The door opened and Artemis came back into the room, another pot of tea on the tray though there were no cookies or biscuits this time. She smiled halfheartedly at Shuichi as she took her seat and pushed his cup toward him, sipping silently from hers when she was finished. Her pale green eyes burned as they bored into his face.

"You need to stop pestering Ryu like that, Shu. He doesn't mean to do you any harm."

The pink-haired boy scoffed and rolled his eyes, slouching down into the couch. "If he would stop being such an asshole, I wouldn't treat him like that."

Artemis sighed and set her cup back on the table. She examined Shuichi's face with a frown of impatience and annoyance. "He's right, you know? You really are a brat."

Shuichi shrugged and glared at her from beneath his bangs. "Great! Are you gonna insult me too, or are you actually going to tell me something useful about my past? I'd like to know so I don't waste any more time here than I need to."

Artemis's glare was vicious, but Shuichi didn't flinch. He was used to driving Artemis to the breaking point and was almost immune to all of her glares and insults. He had developed it into an art form. Soon, though, Artemis sighed and shook her head.

"You're a piece of work, you know? You and Ryuichi both. You're too alike for you own goods."

Shuichi snorted and rolled his eyes. "We're nothing alike. He hates vampires."

Artemis shook her head. "And so do you. You just seem to have developed a liking for the Uesugi clan, is all. But you would kill them if you had to, wouldn't you?"

Shuichi shook his head and closed his eyes. No…he wouldn't kill them, would he? He sighed. Yes, he would. If his life depended on it, he would break down and kill everyone in the Uesugi clan, even Eiri. It wasn't because of anything personal. He guessed that it was just the way he had been raised. Whatever it was, it really didn't matter at the moment.

"Tell me something about my past, Artemis. Something from before the compound that you read in my file."

The raven-haired woman sighed and ran a hand back through her long hair. "Well…the things in your file weren't written with much detail, but I'll give you what I know.

"According to what we read, when you were four-years old your parents died in a car accident and you were given to distant relatives. They didn't want you so they gave you over to a very cruel man within a year later. The man took a liking to you over all his other 'slaves.' He let you stay in the house and took great care of you, but when you did something wrong, you were punished worse than any of the others. He let the others flog and throw stones at you, careful of your face, until you were a bloody heap on the ground.

"Around your thirteenth birthday, he started taking punishment into his own hands. He raped you every time you tried to run away, because you hardly ever did anything wrong. It went on for two years until you were taken away by another man during an attempt at running away. That man was Father and he took you to the compound because he knew what you were and wanted to help you harness your power…"

The woman sat back in her chair and watched Shuichi with an emotionless face, though her eyes burned with sadness, worry, and relief. Shuichi sighed and ran a hand back through his hair, tugging gently at the strands.

"But how did Father _know_ all of that stuff? Did I tell him? I just don't understand… How did I forget it all if I was the one who had told him? It doesn't make any sense…" He rambled on to himself for another five minutes before jumping back into reality, a wild look in his violet eyes.

"Where is the compound? Do you remember?"

Artemis shook her head. "I don't. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. You have no need to go rushing in there, you know that."

Shuichi shook his head. "No. I want to talk to Father. I _need_ to talk to Father. Please, Artemis, if you know, tell me!"

She shook her head again. "I don't remember. Besides, you destroyed the compound when you went on your rampage, so you wouldn't be able to find it anyway. And I haven't seen Father since Ryuichi and I left with you. He's dead for all I know."

Shuichi sighed and closed his eyes. Father couldn't be dead. He needed to talk to him. As far as he knew, he would be the only one would could give him the answers that he so desperately needed. Artemis had been good for that overview, but Shuichi needed more. Where had he come from? Who were his parents? Were there any other dhampir in his family who he could rely on? The questions formed in his mind one by one, building up until he felt like his skull was about to explode.

"I need you to calm down, Shu. You're aura is going crazy."

He shook his head. "No. I am calm. I'm calm. I just need to see Father. He knows about my past. He knows _everything_. He's the only one who will be able to help me."

Artemis laughed. "You are a walking contradiction," she muttered. "I thought you hated Father. How can you say that you want to see him now? You're acting like your life depends on it."

"And what if it does? What if there's something I need to know. Like, maybe someone's after me or something like that. I mean, Father did steal me away from that other man. What if he's looking for me? Father would know!"

Artemis sighed and Shuichi jumped as the couch sank beside him. He opened his eyes and saw Artemis sitting beside him with a frown on her pretty face, sadness shining in her pale eyes.

"You killed that other man, Shuichi. He's the first one you chased down after you destroyed the compound. You massacred the entire town…"

"No!" Shuichi shook his head, his brow furrowed. "I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't kill a town unless I had a reason."

"You did… And then you tried killing yourself. If it wasn't for your Hiro friend, you wouldn't be alive, but you remember at least that much, don't you?"

He nodded and closed his eyes. He buried his face in his hands and took a couple deep breaths before trying to think. Small trickles of something had started to surface in his mind after Artemis' story. The small, separate puddles they formed grew and grew until they joined into a small pond. Flashes of faces, clips of sound and small gusts of smell assaulted his memories, but he couldn't make anything of them. Though they had grouped together to form a large body of memories, none of them were connected by strings. They were like a well shuffled deck of cards.

He wasn't surprised when he felt that he was crying. Out of frustration and guilt…out of sadness. For the first time since their meeting, he wanted his vampire lover more than anything. If Eiri were there, he would be able to hold him and whisper condolences into his ear while he wept. All he had now was Artemis, and though she was the most mature of their group of three, she had never learned how to handle others sadness in the correct ways. None of them had.

_Emotionless._

_Rage._

Yes. They had never learned how to deal with emotions like sadness because they had been taught to harbor nothing but rage. Only rage would help them through a battle. Trivial things like happiness and sadness would only get in their ways. They were to be emotionless unless driven by rage. A need for revenge…

Shuichi's eyes snapped open and his tears stopped abruptly. He sighed and relaxed into the couch, a foreign but familiar sense of tranquility settling over him. Yes…emotionless. It was for the best. He couldn't let his feelings for Eiri or anyone else get in the way of his mission. He was going to find Father and he was going to get his answers. And then, he would kill him, once and for all.

Artemis sighed and it pulled Shuichi's attention back to her. She offered him a small smile when she saw that she had his attention.

"I'm worried about you, Shu," she said and grabbed one of his hands with both of her own. She held it tightly in her lap. "I don't want you to do anything stupid. We can't risk you dieing again."

He laughed coldly. "I don't think Ryuichi would mind all that much."

Artemis scowled. "How can you say that? Ryuichi loves you like a brother. It's why he's so hard on you. He doesn't want to see you get hurt, either."

"He could have a better way to show it…"

Artemis growled under her breath and shoved herself up from the couch. "I can't believe the two of you. You can't be in a room together for five minutes without arguing! And when you're separated, you're like two completely different people. Ryuichi is kind and caring and worries about you, while all you can do is talk shit about him. Where is _your _love for _him_, Shu?"

She sighed and fell back into her chair, her face buried in her hands. "No…no. I'm sorry. That was wrong of me to say. But…" She glanced up at Shuichi and sighed again. "Ryu does care about you. He wants you to be happy, but he's like the rest of us. It's hard to trust those we were born to exterminate, Shuichi. You've already surpassed us because you are able to trust a coven of vampires. Hell…you even love one of them."

He opened his mouth to argue, but she silenced him with a glare.

"And don't you dare try and tell me that you don't love, Eiri-kun. You may be able to keep for face emotionless, but your aura belies it." A small smile graced her lips. "You're truly an amazing person, Shuichi, and I envy you. I wish I could be as carefree as you."

Shuichi laughed and shook his head. "It has its downfalls."

Artemis shrugged. "What doesn't? But to be able to follow your heart without any questions… Gods, what I wouldn't give to be able to do that."

A tense silence hung in the air between them for a while as they each wandered through their own thoughts. Artemis was the first to break it with yet another sigh. Shuichi blinked and watched as she stood from the chair and gathered their tea cups onto the tray.

"I'm going to get some sleep before night falls. Eiri-kun will come looking for you. I don't want to be unprepared when he finds you." She smiled and ran her free hand through her long hair. "You should get some sleep too. You've had a hard past couple of days. You could use the rest."

Shuichi nodded and lay out on the couch while Artemis left the room. He sighed and put a hand over his eyes, letting the other fall to the floor. Too was happening too fast. There was no way for him to be able to comprehend it all before his mind shutdown from overexertion.

Sleep tugged at the corners of his mind and he gave into it. A power nap would be useful. He didn't want to fall asleep in the middle of his plans. Then he would be killed for sure.

**-------------**

_A pair of cold blue eyes loomed before him. "Look at little Shu-chan run. He thinks he can get away from us. How funny."_

_Laughter. Then the blue eyes were joined by a pair of cold yellow ones. "Yes, funny, indeed. But we shall catch him. It will only take a little more time. Then he will be ours again."_

_"Yes…then we will torture him until he gives his final scream. He will feel so much pain and pleasure, that he'll die from it…"_

A loud gasp filled the room as Shuichi awoke. Laughter surrounded him, drowning him. He couldn't breathe. He felt like he was going to die if he didn't get out.

He jumped up from where he had been lying and ran away. He didn't know where he was going, but he threw open the closest window in the room and jumped out, landing silently on the empty sidewalk below. The world was bathed in a calm twilight. Too calm.

Shuichi's eyes flashed and glazed over. He closed his eyes to concentrate on his target and sniffed the air delicately. A cruel smile form on his lips when he caught the scent. It had been so long since he'd smelled anything like it. He had been sure that he'd killed the man. It was a pity, but this time he would make sure that his face was the last thing the cursed man would see as he took his last breath. He _would_ kill him.

He tore through the city like a bat out of Hell, not even taking the time to apologize to the innocent passersby he sent to the ground as he passed. There wasn't time for that.

The scent grew stronger with each step he took. When he stopped outside a large hotel building, he was drowning in it. It was sensuous and exotic…addicting.

With a quiet growl, Shuichi took the steps outside the building two-by-two and charged into the building. One of the receptionists behind the desk shouted that there was no running in the hotel, but he didn't care. Walking was out of his mental capacity, not when he was this close. He couldn't take any chances.

He couldn't wait for the elevator. He burst through the door that led to the stairs at breakneck speed and tore up the twenty flights like they were nothing to him. It wasn't like he had never done worse in the years he'd spent in training and hunting vampires.

He flung the door to the twentieth story open and dashed into the hallway. The scent up there was so strong he could hardly breathe, but he barely noticed it. He kept moving on, using all of his strength to break down the door to room 2542 without the courtesy of a knock. As if he deserved it anyway.

A loud scream rang out as the door shattered to pieces. Shuichi took a step into the room, crushing the splintered pieces of wood beneath his feet, and looked around. No one but a terrified young woman was there. She sat huddled on the couch, her body covered by a thin white sheet. It did nothing for her. He could still tell that she was naked beneath the cover.

"Nice of you to join us, Little One. You're right on time."

Shuichi growled and turned around. A tall raven-haired man was leaning against the doorframe behind him, his arms crossed over his chest. A cold smile was on his lips and his eyes were like ice.

"Father!" Shuichi gasped.

The man laughed and pushed away from the frame. He walked toward Shuichi with his arms held out before him in a welcoming gesture. Shuichi couldn't stop himself. Everything he'd built up on the way to the hotel faded away as he fell into the embrace with his eyes closed, a small sigh slipping past his lips. The man laughed again.

"It has been far too long, Shuichi. I have missed you."

"I've missed you too."

Father pulled away and held Shuichi's face gently in his hands, his cold smile turning kind as he looked upon his old student. Shuichi returned the smile. He'd found him! Father was alive. He would be able to answer his questions and help him find his family.

The man laughed. "Your family is dead, Little One. They have been for years."

Shuichi blinked and furrowed his brow. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"They are all dead. Killed in an accident, remember?" He sighed and shook his head. "No…you don't. It is a pity really, but you couldn't have come at a more perfect time."

Father smiled and looked over Shuichi's shoulder. Shuichi turned and saw the young woman standing there, dressed in a nice suit with her long blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail.

"Shuichi, this is Esther. She is going to make sure you are taken care of."

Shuichi nodded. The woman smiled and closed the distance between them. She stood by Father's side with her arms behind her back.

"It is nice to meet you, Shuichi."

Shuichi nodded. "You too."

Father laughed. "Have you ever been a hostage, Little One?"

A hostage? Shuichi shook his head. No. He had never been a hostage… Something in the back of his mind clicked. But it was too late. By the time he tried to make a run for the door, Father had a hand clamped around his upper arm in an unbreakable grip. Shuichi winced at the pain that shot up his arm to his shoulder.

"You are the pawn that is going to bring little Eiri to us. It has been far too long since I have seen him, as well. We need to have a…talk…"

The cold smile on the man's face told Shuichi that he wasn't planning on talking. Shuichi struggled against Father's grip, but the man only tightened it.

"You will not escape, Little One," he mumbled, his mouth against Shuichi's ear. "Not again. You are mine, and I am going to make that known to everyone, starting with your little vampire lover."

A cold sweat broke out all over Shuichi's body as a pair of lips was pressed against his throat. They moved all over, but stopped and hovered over his pulse. Shuichi knew what was coming and was prepared for it, but he still winced as the two razor sharp incisors sunk into his neck.

The man drew blood until Shuichi felt himself going weak in the knees. When he pulled away, there was a small trickle of blood that dripped from the corner of his mouth and down his chin.

"You have let him feed from you, even with the knowledge of what he was!" Father said with a laugh. "How amazing. I learn something new about you everyday, Little One."

"Fuck off!" Shuichi growled.

He laughed. "Such foul language." He beckoned to the woman with a small flick of his wrist. "Esther. Take care of him for now. I do not have the time to deal with foolishness."

"Yes, sir."

Esther took a step forward and revealed why she had been holding her hands behind her back. She held a tranquilizer gun in her hands. Shuichi tried to run, but the hold on his arm was too tight. The gun went off silently and the next thing Shuichi knew was black.

TBC…

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meh…I like the ending of this chapter and that's about it. Poor Shuichi. He got what he wanted, so I guess he really can't complain, right? Yeah…that would be cruel. But we'll hear from him again in a bit. Next comes pissed off Eiri. HURRAH!!! _::happy dance::_…

Anyway…thanks to everyone who reviewed. You know who you are and I should have sent you all PMs. If I didn't, I'm sorry and I will this time. _::hugs you all::_…

Thank ya much for reading and, until next chapter, ja ne…


	9. Chapter Eight: The Search

_::happy chapter eight dance::_

You all should join in! It's really fun!…

Waverly: Shut up and write the chapter, baka!…

_::pouts::_ Fine…but you didn't have to be so mean about it…

**Disclaimer:** The characters of _Gravitation_ belong to Maki Murakami-sama, not me…

**Chapter Eight:  
The Search…**

He ran through the busy streets, the only sign of his presence being the breeze that followed in his invisible wake. Rage and worry surged through his veins and twined together to form a vicious beast. He was going to kill whoever had taken Shuichi away from him, and then he wouldn't let the pink-haired boy out of his sight for the rest of his life. His actions had been inexcusable and he hated himself for letting someone take his lover away.

Eiri took a giant leap and landed on top of a skyscraper. He sat on the edge of the roof, his legs dangling precariously over the edge. He thought about jumping, but laughed when he remembered that it would be useless. He would be a medical miracle—the first person to survive a jump from the top of a one hundred plus story building. He would be taken to a hospital and tests would be done, tests that would expose his secret to the world. He couldn't have that.

Sighing, the blonde closed his eyes and look a long, deep breath of the air around him, searching through it for Shuichi's familiar scent. It was there. Of course it was there. It had been in the air all night. It was in his clothes, on his skin. The one moderately good lead he'd gotten on the boy had been a false alarm. It had only lead to Casa del Rosa, the boy's place of employment. He hadn't been there and neither had Artemis. It only helped to pique the vampire's suspicions that she had been involved in Shuichi's disappearance.

_'Where are you, Love? Please answer me…'_

He didn't keep his hopes up. Shuichi hadn't answered any other message he'd sent him throughout the night, and he'd sent out many. More than he could keep track of. He just wanted to make sure Shuichi was okay. If the boy said that he didn't want him to go chasing after him, then he would listen for as long as he possibly could. Just one message…that was all he wanted.

Just as he knew it would, the message bounced off a barrier around Shuichi's mind. It was strange though. While the first barrier had been placed by Shuichi's friends, Eiri couldn't find out who had erected this one. There had been some signature residue left behind from Artemis and someone else on the earlier barrier, but there was nothing now.

Eiri leaped over the edge and landed invisibly in the middle of a group on the sidewalk below. He wandered through the city under the camouflage of the busy crowd, his hope slowly fading. He had grown so accustomed to Shuichi's scent that the boy was everywhere. The busy club in the alleyway, the empty twenty-four hour grocery store on the corner… Anywhere the boy had been, he left his scent, and Eiri was picking up on everything.

The blonde growled and took a detour into the park. He quickly found an empty bench and settled down, closing his eyes with a heavy sigh.

'_Damn you, Shindou Shuichi. Answer me!'_

Yet again, there was no answer. He sighed again and buried his face in his hands. He was quickly becoming frustrated, and that wasn't a good thing. If he sat and dwelled on it, his frustration would turn to rage. He couldn't to running into a battle against an unknown force in a blind rage. The battle would be over in less than five minutes and he would be nothing but a bloody pulp on the floor.

_Touma smiled and cocked his head to the side. "You won't be able to find him, Eiri-kun. Why don't you just wait until he comes back to you?"_

_Eiri shook his head and threw the door open. "I won't sit around and wait. I won't give up. I _will_ find him, Touma, if it's the last thing that I do."_

The blonde sighed and propped his elbows on his knees, leaving his forehead in his palms. Touma had been right. It was useless. As long as Shuichi's mind was closed off to him, he wouldn't be able to find him, but he couldn't—he wouldn't—just sit back and do nothing. No matter how futile it was, he was going to continue searching for Shuichi for the rest of eternity.

He felt an all too familiar aura coming close to him and sighed. So Touma had sent him a babysitter, huh? Couldn't that man mind his own business for once in his damned life? Eiri was perfectly capable with handing the problem on his own. He didn't need any backup.

"I didn't come to be your babysitter or because Touma asked me to. I came because I was worried about you."

I sighed and looked up just as Tatsuha stepped out of the shadow of a tree. The young vampire smiled weakly at his brother and wandered up to his side. He didn't take a seat on the bench. He stopped a few feet away and put his hands in his pockets, keeping his eyes on the ground.

"You're an idiot…"

Tatsuha's shoulders tensed and he glanced up at Eiri with a frown on his face. He sighed heavily and finally fell down into the spot beside his brother on the bench.

"Why am I an idiot for worrying about you? I wanted to help you."

Eiri sighed and shook his head. "Don't tell me that you've suddenly developed a soft spot for Shuichi, especially after how you reacted when I told you what he was."

Tatsuha hung his head. "He's a good kid. I don't want anything to happen to him."

Eiri laughed and closed his eyes. "You confuse me."

"We're brothers. If we don't look out for each other, who will?" He sighed. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you if I can prevent it."

"Trying to be a saint now, Tatsuha?"

Tatsuha glared at him. "What? What's so bad about me wanting to be there for you when something bad happens? Because something bad _will_ happen, it always does when you're involved."

Eiri was in the process of forming a witty retort in his head when a familiar voice rang out through the night, a voice he didn't want to hear unless it was accompanied by another. The other voice wasn't there. He sighed. Tatsuha was right. Of course he was. He was always right. Clairvoyant little bastard.

"Eiri-kun!!"

He watched with fearful eyes as Artemis ran toward him and Tatsuha from across the park; her long hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but it flew out behind her in the breeze. A brunet man that Eiri recognized from Shuichi's memories accompanied her, though he moved toward them at a casual walk, as if he weren't in any hurry.

Artemis stopped in front of the bench and took a couple of seconds to catch her breath. Eiri was surprised to see that her aura was swarming with emotions. Anger, fear, sadness, guilt… Each color joined and swirled together beautifully.

"Where's Shuichi?" he muttered before he could stop himself. "You took him. I know you did. Where is he?"

The woman tensed and watched Eiri with a frown on her face. "You mean you didn't come and take him back from us?"

He shook his head and Artemis sighed. It was the wrong reaction. Anything would have been better than that sigh. That one small little thing sent an anvil of dread careening into the pit of Eiri's stomach. It fell and fell and fell until it hit the bottom, making his stomach feel like it had just fallen down to his toes.

"You don't know where he is?" he whispered. She shook her head. "Gods damn him! He ran away. That little bastard!"

Artemis sighed and ran a hand back through the hair that had fallen from her hair tie. "Dammit!" she cursed. "I let him sleep in the room alone because I trusted him. I trusted him and he lied to me!"

The brunet man laughed and put a hand on Artemis's shoulder. "You can't tell me that you expected him to listen to you, Arty. You should know better than that by now."

She shook her head. "No. I did trust him. That asshole!"

The brunet man laughed again and looked up at Eiri and Tatsuha, a cold look in his sky blue eyes. He pointed at Eiri. "I'm guessing you're the vampire who seems to have stolen our little Shu-chan's heart."

Eiri nodded. "Uesugi Eiri. And who are you?"

"Sakuma Ryuichi. And who's this other bloodsucker?" He gestured towards Tatsuha. "You look related."

Tatsuha stepped forward. "I'm Uesugi Tatsuha, Eiri's younger brother."

Ryuichi nodded. "So we have a whole family of vampires going on here. Interesting…"

"I think I know where Shuichi went," Artemis muttered, interrupting Eiri before he could begin an argument with Ryuichi.

She looked at Ryuichi. "I heard from Father earlier this month. He said that he was going to be in town. I don't know how, but I think Shuichi may have gone to him."

"Father?" Tatsuha muttered.

Artemis nodded. "Yes. Ichijouji Mamoru."

"WHAT?!" Tatsuha shouted and jumped up from the bench, causing Ryuichi and Artemis to leap back in fear. Ryuichi took a battle stance. Eiri kept his face emotionless. "Mamoru?"

"Yes. He's a great man. He gathered orphaned dhampir like Shu, Ryu, and I and trained us in how to use our powers."

Tatsuha shook his head and looked at Eiri with incredulous eyes. "Eiri… Mamoru… He has Shuichi! He's going to…" He groaned and sank back down into the bench.

Eiri nodded. "I understand that, Tatsuha."

The boy gaped at his brother and moved his mouth as if talking, but nothing came out. Finally he gave up and dropped his forehead into his hands.

Artemis frowned and looked between the two with a furrowed brow. "He's going to what? How do you know Father?"

Tatsuha laughed and received a sharp glare from Eiri. He quieted immediately. Eiri coughed and stared at Artemis with emotionless eyes. He refused to let the dhampir know what he was feeling. They could easily use it against him if they wanted to attack, though he didn't think that they would. If they really were dealing with Mamoru, killing Eiri would be the worst mistake of their lives.

"This 'Father' was one of our Elders long ago. He committed treason and was exiled. If he's the same person I used to know, he wasn't training you out of kindness. He was going to use you to assassinate the Council so he wouldn't have to do it himself."

Artemis stared at Eiri with wide eyes. "Excuse me…?"

Tatsuha laughed. "Your precious Father is a vampire…one of us… But not one of us 'cause he's evil…and we're not…"

Eiri rolled his eyes and finally pushed himself up from the bench. He noticed Artemis's shoulders tense and Ryuichi went back into his battle stance. He couldn't help but laugh.

"We have no intentions of hurting you. Tell us where Shuichi is and we'll leave you in peace."

Artemis shook her head. "No. You're not going to go there alone." She sighed. "I don't believe that Father is evil, but I always knew that he wasn't like us. He's strong. You're going to need back-up if you want to get out with Shuichi alive."

The blonde sighed and ran a hand back through his hair. "Whatever. I just want to get Shuichi back. I'm worried. His mind is seal away. I don't like it."

Artemis nodded. "Neither do I, but we can't do anything but hope for him until we find where he and Father are. They're not in the hotel. Ryu and I already checked there. He probably took Shuichi back to the compound."

Ryuichi snorted. "Or what's left of it anyway. And why are you being so kind to these leeches anyway? They're no different than the other vampires we've fought."

The raven-haired woman shook her head. "No." She smiled at Eiri and Tatsuha. "They're much different than the others we've fought. These vampires have souls. And I hope that they're wrong about Father or else we're going to have a long battle on our hands."

Ryuichi sighed and rolled his eyes but didn't say anymore. Tatsuha was still sitting in silence as well, his eyes closed and his forehead in his hands. Artemis eyes stayed glued on Eiri, waiting for him to make the first move. But he didn't know what to do. Of all the people who could have taken Shuichi, he never would have expected Mamoru to be it. He was supposed to be dead, killed by a dhampir years ago.

Finally Artemis sighed and ran a hand back through her long hair. "What are we going to do? Sunrise is in a couple of hours."

Ryuichi laughed. "Oh no! Can't let the vampires stay out in the sun…"

The woman rolled her eyes and pushed Ryuichi behind her to keep him out of the conversation. The brunet growled under his breath and crossed his arms over his chest, but kept silent. She didn't seem like it, but Eiri was willing to bet that Artemis had a bad bite and that Ryuichi had felt it more than once.

"What if they've moved on?" Eiri pointed out. "Our work will be useless if they're not at the hotel."

Artemis smiled a crooked smile and crossed her arms over her chest. "Come on, Eiri-kun. Give us some credit. I mean, it's not like we've been hunting vampires our entire lives or anything…"

Eiri rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay. I get the point."

"I dunno, Eiri," Tatsuha muttered. "Can we trust them? I mean…" He glanced at Ryuichi over Artemis's shoulder and back to his brother.

Eiri got the point and smirked. "I know what you're worried about, Tatsuha, but if Shuichi trusted them, then so can we." He looked at Artemis. "Right?"

She nodded. Ryuichi's nod was more reluctant but he nodded nonetheless.

The mismatched group of four gathered around a park bench and began deciding on a plan to use the following night. It was when they would strike, and hopefully save Shuichi from the clutches of his old vampire mentor.

Neither the irony nor the déjà vu were lost on Eiri.

When they went their separate ways it was with heavy hearts and restless minds. Tatsuha followed Eiri back to his place so they could rise and leave together the next night. Eiri had rolled his eyes when Tatsuha had said that it was because he didn't want to risk Eiri going off on his own and leaving him behind, but didn't complain. He didn't want to go on his own anyway. Not when he was going to be fighting with dhampir. He trusted Artemis, but wasn't too sure about Ryuichi.

Eiri prayed that the dhampir would get over whatever grudge he had before night fell again. The battle was going to be hard enough without the blonde having to watch his back for an attack from someone who was supposed to be an ally.

**-------------**

The hotel building loomed over them like an evil king over its people. It was easily the tallest building on the street, if not the entire city, and the black marble that covered the outer walls made it look even more ominous.

Eiri and Tatsuha stood side by side, keeping a safe distance from the two dhampir. Artemis stood with her open palms pressed against the cold marble of the building, her eyes closed and a look of concentration on her face. Ryuichi stood beside her with his hands in his pockets, fidgeting nervously.

A shiver rippled up Eiri's spine. Shuichi was here. If he wasn't, he hadn't left too long ago. His scent was still fresh, but mixed with the sour taste of another's. He didn't need to see the creature's aura to know that he was a vampire, and an evil one at that. The disgusting aftertaste in the back of his throat was enough to prove it.

"They've already left," Artemis muttered, opening her eyes and removing her hands from the side of the building.

Eiri cursed loudly and Tatsuha grabbed onto his arm to keep him from doing something stupid. Ryuichi's face stayed emotionless, though he was still fidgeting. Artemis sighed.

"They didn't leave that long ago. Their trail is still strong. If we follow it, it should lead us to Shuichi, or at least Father."

Eiri nodded and Artemis didn't wait for a command before she started running. The other three followed quickly.

Eiri wished that they could have moved faster. While the two dhampir were faster than normal humans, they weren't nearly as fast as Eiri and Tatsuha, but he knew that Artemis needed to stay connected to the ground so she could follow the trail. If her feet left the earth, her connection would be lost, as would their best chance to save Shuichi.

They ran for what felt like hours, until Artemis came to a sudden stop. Ryuichi had to jump to the side to keep from running into her. Eiri and Tatsuha had been far enough behind that they were able to stop at a human's pace.

"He took him _there_?" she gasped and looked at Ryuichi. He nodded sadly.

"Took him where?" Tatsuha asked.

Artemis shook her head and stared ahead of her.

Ryuichi sighed. "He took him to the compound or what's left of it, anyway. Shuichi destroyed it the night he set us free."

Eiri started in surprise at the comment about Shuichi, but didn't have long to think about it before Artemis started running again. He took off in a flash and followed as close to Artemis as he dared, leaving Tatsuha behind to follow Ryuichi.

They didn't stop again until they were before a dilapidated building. It looked like it had been glorious in its earlier days, but something had happened and left it in ruins. Large chunks of marble were scattered across the ground and what Eiri thought had been walls in the past had large holes in them. The building looked like it had been a hospital in its past life. It hadn't seen a patient in a long time.

Eiri had the underlying feeling that he knew what had happened to the building, but he didn't want to admit it to himself. Not yet.

"Welcome to the Compound," Ryuichi muttered in a sarcastic voice.

The brunet walked up to Artemis's side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She sighed and relaxed into the embrace.

"It's been so long," Eiri heard her whisper.

Ryuichi only answered with a nod before turning to Eiri and Tatsuha.

"This is it. Mamoru has Shuichi somewhere in this building. Now all we have to do is find him…"

Eiri couldn't stop the smile from stretching across his face. "Ready or not, Mamoru. Here we come."

TBC…

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A/N: Bleh…I really don't like this chapter. Why? Mainly because it tricked me. It started out well, but then turned on me by the time I got to the middle. Damned writer's block… I think that happy chapter eight dance I did at the beginning of the chapter cursed me…

Anyway…seven more chapters and this will be done. _::sighs::_ I _may_ write a sequel. I haven't decided yet, but I'll get all of your feedback in a later chapter somewhere closer to the ending…

Thanks to you guys who reviewed. Your words mean a lot and keep me going. It really helps my write a little bit faster when I know that there are people out there who are actually reading…and take the time to leave me a review. Nothing depresses me more than seeing that I've had twenty or so people ready my story only two have reviewed…_::cougsh::_KHfic_::coughs::_…_::sighs::_…

Sorry for any typos or overall crappiness of this chapter…

Ja ne 'til next chapter…


	10. Chapter Nine: The Elders

_::sighs::_ There is no excuse for taking so long to update this story. I apologize to everyone who has been awaiting this chapter. _::sighs again::_ I've been putting my entire mind into my KH fic, so pretty much everything else has been neglected. I'm sorry…

**Disclaimer:** The characters of _Gravitation_ belong to Maki Murakami-sama, not me…

**Chapter Nine:  
The Elders…**

The room was dark and he was cold. He couldn't remember how long he had been locked in the cell. It felt like it had been months, maybe even years, but he was sure that it had probably only been a day, if that. He wished there was a window in the cell so it would be easier to tell time, but he had the feeling that Mamoru had picked the cell for that reason. He always took advantage of an opportunity to fuck with a person's mind when he was given the chance.

A violent shiver rippled through Shuichi's body and he pulled his sorry excuse for a blanket tighter against his naked body for warmth. It didn't do much, but it kept the cold at bay for at least a little while. The cold shouldn't have bothered him so much. One of the things he had managed to remember from his training with Father was that the vampire blood in his veins would keep him warm, even in the most unbearable of colds. But now it wasn't working. He was shivering so hard that his teeth were chattering.

"Damn you, Father," he cursed. The vampire must have bound his powers while he had been under the influence of the tranquilizer. It was so like Father that Shuichi couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it to begin with.

Shuichi rolled over with a loud groan and rubbed at his eyes. Small green dots danced across his vision when he pulled his hands away, only to disappear off into the walls after a couple of minutes. He groaned again and curled into a tight ball with his arms hugged against his chest.

In the darkness, all he wanted to do was sleep. It wasn't like there was anything else that he could do. If Father hadn't have barred his powers, he would be able to see perfectly in the room. But now all there was was darkness. Cold, empty, dreary darkness that made him want to break down into sobs that would carry him off into sleep.

Where was Eiri? Had he even realized that he was missing yet? Shuichi laughed at himself. Of course he had. He was surprised the blonde vampire didn't have him on a leash yet. He just hoped that Eiri hadn't done anything to harm Artemis or Ryuichi when he had discovered that Shuichi wasn't with them. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if they had been killed because of his own stupidity. But he trusted Eiri enough to at least think that he wouldn't harm them. Eiri knew how much Shuichi cared about the other two dhampir. They were the only family he had left, after all.

"How much longer will I have to stay in this place?"

The answer to his question came a few minutes later. They were quiet at first, barely audible through what he knew was a heavy metal door, but he could still hear them. Footsteps. And they were nearing his holding cell. They slowed to a stop outside and Shuichi heard the rustling of keys before a lock clicked and, with an angry groan, the door was pushed open. The pink-haired boy had to squint his eyes to keep from being blinded by the light that flooded the room. Even still, all he could make out was the shadow of a person in the doorway.

"You have been summoned," said a male voice and the person entered the room before Shuichi could complain.

A cold, statuesque hand clamped around his upper arm and heaved Shuichi out of bed. A violent shiver rippled through Shuichi's body as the thin blanket fell from his body and left him exposed to the frigid air of the cell. Without loosening his hold on Shuichi's arm, the man pulled the boy from the room and into the hallway.

Shuichi hissed as his eyes were blinded by the fluorescent lights of the hall. No amount of squinting could keep the light away this time. Slowly but surely, though, his eyes adjusted to the bright lights and he was finally able to take a look around and see where the hell he had been taken.

The walls were a pure and stainless white and reminded Shuichi of the inside of a stereotypical mental institution. The floors were tiled with pale blue slabs of what was mostly likely fake marble, but fake or not, it still sent a chill throughout Shuichi's body as his bare feet pressed against it. He knew that he should probably do something about his nakedness, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to get away from the man who dragged him if he tried so he would save it for later.

Shuichi look a second and glanced up at the man in front of him. He couldn't see much, only the back of his head. The shock of black hair atop his head wasn't unusual for a person from Japan, but whenever Shuichi tried to walk a little faster so he could catch up to the man and get a look at the side of his face, he would speed up and leave Shuichi lagging behind again.

The man came to an abrupt halt outside a door and quickly unlocked it with one of many keys on the ring he pulled from his pocket. He shoved the door open and moved to the side, making sure to keep his face hidden from Shuichi's view.

"You are to bathe before your meeting. There are clothes and towels in the room beside one of the bathtubs. You have twenty minutes. I will alert you when you have five minutes before your time is up."

Shuichi nodded and went into the room. He managed to flick on a light switch just before the man pulled the door closed. Shuichi snorted. So now he was allowed privacy, after he had been pulled from his dark and dreary cell and dragged through a hallway in his birthday suit. Sure, they hadn't seen anyone on their trek through the hall, but that wasn't the point.

The boy sighed and went to the bathtub that had his clothes and a towel beside it and started the water. He climbed in before the tub was completely filled and sighed heavily as the warm water relaxed his muscles and calmed his heart. The tub was almost overfilled before he remembered that he had to turn the water off.

He cleaned himself quickly with the bar of soap and wash cloth that had been left for him, but he took his time soaking when he was finished. He had twenty minutes, after all. As he soaked, the thought about everything that had happened to him since he'd been found by Hiro in the gutter two years before.

Pale and sick and almost completely drained of blood, Shuichi had collapsed in that gutter because he felt no need to carry on. It was only luck that Hiro had stumbled across him on his way home from work that night. Even in his half-unconscious state, Shuichi had heard his loud gasp and felt him lifted into Hiro's arms. The span of time between being found and waking up in the hospital was lost, though.

After that day, Hiro had become Shuichi's best friend. It seemed only natural, seeing that not only had Hiro found him, but the doctors had used Hiro's blood in the transfusion that had ultimately saved Shuichi's life. Shuichi lived with Hiro and his family for a while and attended high school with him. They discovered Shuichi's musical talent and started to play music together. Hell, they were starting to get rather well-known around the city by the time Eiri had unceremoniously jumped into Shuichi's life. Not that he minded, or anything.

Eiri… Shuichi still wasn't sure about what he thought about the vampire. He cared about him, he knew that beyond a doubt. But was it love? Artemis said that it was—that she was able to read it in his aura—but was it really? Shuichi couldn't tell.

He had always been raised to hate vampires with every ounce of his being. Vampires were cruel and vile creatures that hunted and murdered humans just for the fun of it. But Eiri was different. Though he had never seen him hunt, Shuichi knew that he never killed, and he could tell when he fed by reading his aura. In the time that they had met, Eiri had fed three times, taking only what was needed for his survival from the human he drank from. And he was so kind whenever he was with Shuichi. The night they had slept together Eiri had been so gentle that it had made Shuichi cry, though he wasn't sure why. It probably had something to do with the past he still couldn't fully remember.

Shuichi sighed and sank down into the water so his nose was just above the surface. Everything was so confusing and he just wanted to scream, but he just couldn't. He needed to stay strong if he was going to make it through this.

A knock on the bathroom door pulled Shuichi from his thoughts and he looked to the door just in time to see it pushed open a bit, though the man never stuck his head in.

"You have five minutes. I suggest you get out and dress yourself before you run out of time and I have to drag you through the halls nude again."

"Thank you,…whoever you are…" Shuichi muttered and waited until the door was latched shut before he pushed himself out of the tub.

He wrapped the towel around his waist and pulled the plug to drain the water. He gently patted himself dry before he pulled on the clothes that had been left for him. He thanked whoever ruled above that the clothes were normal and not a hospital gown or something like that. He pulled on the pair of boxers and blue jeans before grabbed the T-shirt and pulling it over his head. The man pushed the door open again just as Shuichi was slipping into his second tennis shoe.

"Your time is up."

"Yeah, yeah," Shuichi grumbled under his breath. "I'm comin'."

When he left the bathroom, Shuichi's escort didn't even give the time to smile before he restarted the walk down the hallway. The boy "hmphed" quietly and silently followed the strange raven-haired man down the hall with his arms crossed over his chest.

The silence between the two males was driving Shuichi mad, but he knew better than to try and start conversation with the escort. The man probably wouldn't answer any of his questions anyway, so it was useless. It would be like he was talking to himself, not that he had never done that before or anything.

The raven-haired man came to a sudden stop outside of another door. He knocked casually on the door three times and took a step back, as if he was waiting for something to happen. Shuichi furrowed his brow and frowned when the door opened a couple of seconds later, revealing a large conference room. A man with a vibrant shock of red hair stepped out of the room with a gentle smile on his face.

"Ah. You're Shindou Shuichi, I presume?" Shuichi nodded and the man's smile grew. "Fabulous. Mamoru…I mean, Father has been waiting patiently for you to arrive."

Shuichi nodded again and glanced to his side, but the escort was gone. It only made his frown deepen.

Mamoru. Where had he heard that name before? And why did just the sound of it send a rush of venom dripping into his veins? He knew that he was a vampire, but there was something more to it than just that.

"Come along. Come along," the redhead said and gestured for Shuichi to enter the room.

The boy did as he was told and shivered in anticipation as the door closed behind him silently. There was only one person aside from him and the redhead in the room, but the table was set for four. Shuichi cocked his head to the side and lifted his eyes so he could look at the raven-haired man that was seated at the table. Father smiled at him and stood from his chair, beckoning to Shuichi with open arms. For the same unknown reason as the last time, Shuichi was drawn to him and let himself fall into the embrace gratefully.

"My, my Shuichi. Have they not been feeding you?" the man asked when he pulled away.

Shuichi snorted and turned his eyes away from Father. "Like you don't know. You're the one who locked me in the damned cell in the first place," he spat.

Father laughed and used a gentle hand to turn Shuichi's eyes back onto him. "But I didn't tell them to starve you. I'll have to have a word with the guards when this meeting is complete."

"And what exactly is this meeting? Where's the other person that the table's set for?"

"You mean other _two_ people," Father corrected. "Unfortunately, our dear Tetsuya will not be joining us in this meeting. He has other things that he needs to take care of."

"And that Esther woman?"

Father laughed heartily and threw back his head. "She will not have the pleasure of joining us in any of our meetings. She has…fallen ill and it will take a long time for her to get better again."

"You bastard!" Shuichi growled and pushed himself away from the vampire. "What did you do to her?"

"_I_ didn't do anything to her," Mamoru sighed. "And she's not dead, only lost in a coma-like sleep where she'll wander through her darkest dreams for all eternity. She's probably wishing that she _was_ dead by now."

"You could have let her go!" Shuichi shouted incredulously, though he realized that he shouldn't have been surprised. This man was a vampire, after all. Eiri may have been a vampire as well, but he was an unusual kind. "You're a sick, sick man."

Mamoru smiled and the sight of his fangs sent a shiver of fear rippling through Shuichi's body. "But that's where you are wrong, and you know that. For I am not a man, I am a vampire, just like your blonde little lover."

"Leave Eiri out of this!"

"Eiri is the reason you're here in the first place, little one. You think I wanted you back just to have you back? You were a magnificent pupil and all, but you weren't that great. If you were great, you would have managed to kill me when you tried the first time."

Shuichi growled and turned on his heel, headed for the doorway, but the redhead stepped blocked his path. He growled again and turned to Mamoru with a fierce scowl on his face.

"Let me go!" he shouted. "I refuse to be like Esther. The moment you get your hands on Eiri you're going to kill me, aren't you?"

"I wouldn't kill you, little one!" Mamoru shouted, jumping back as if offended. "I would never kill you. You are too promising a specimen to just waste in such a way." Then he smiled and Shuichi shrank away. "But I hope you enjoy sleep because you _are_ going to be like Esther."

The man advanced on Shuichi until the boy was pinned in a corner and the vampire was standing over him with a cruel smile on his face. Shuichi wanted to scream, but he knew the sound would only make the vampire want him even more. No, if he stayed still and refused to struggle hopefully Mamoru would give up on him without a fight.

A knock sounded on the door to the room and Mamoru stepped back from Shuichi with an annoyed frown on his face. Shuichi took the opportunity to dash away, but the vampire was faster and he grabbed him around the bicep before he had the chance to get too far. Shuichi cursed loudly, but stood obediently by Mamoru's side as the redhead opened the door and let two people. No, two vampires. Shuichi could have vomited from the scent of fresh human blood that was radiating from the man and woman's bodies.

They were both well dressed, the man in a navy pinstriped suit and tie and the woman in a long black evening gown. They looked like they were siblings. Their hair was the same deep brown color and, even from the distance, Shuichi could see that their eyes were a startling shade of blue. Their skin was as pale as a pearl.

"Brother. Sister. How good it is for you to join us!" Mamoru exclaimed while holding out his arms in a welcoming gesture, though he didn't once loosen his grip on Shuichi's arm.

"Mamoru!" the male vampire said and crossed the room to pat Father on the shoulder. Shuichi watched the display in disgust and frowned at the male vampire when he turned to him. "And Shuichi. My, my. It's been a while. You've grown to be such a beautiful young man!"

The man brushed a calloused hand down the side of Shuichi's face and the boy had to remind himself that biting his finger off would get him nowhere. He let his disgust flash in the eyes and frowned as the vampire laughed.

"You're still as feisty as ever, I see," he said and turned back to Mamoru. "Anyway, what's the rush, Brother? You called Kayade and me so suddenly that we barely had time to prepare for the journey."

Mamoru laughed and pulled Shuichi in front of him, gesturing around the boy as if he were a model advertising a new car. "I've finally found our trump card, Youji. Our little blonde vampire friend won't be able to resist coming on the attack if he hears that his lover is in danger."

Kayade, the female, gasped loudly and all three male's attention onto her. "_He_ is Eiri's lover? You always have been bad at telling jokes, Mamoru."

Mamoru laughed and shook his head. "It's not joke, sweet Kayade. Eiri is quite taken with this boy, though he knows that he could—and _will_—be the one to kill him. You can't smell him on the boy?"

She shook her head. "All I smell is strawberries and soap."

Mamoru cursed and his hand clenched tightly around Shuichi's bicep. He pulled the boy closer to him and pressed his nose to the nape of his neck. He cursed again when he pulled away.

"I never gave you permission to bathe," he spat, shoving Shuichi away from him.

Shuichi put on his best innocent face and pouted at his ex-teacher. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that taking a bath would effect your plans." And it was the truth. He hadn't had any idea of Mamoru's plans when he had been bathing, though he wouldn't have done anything differently if he _had_ known the plans, either.

Mamoru growled and advanced on Shuichi. "You little shit! How dare you disrespect your teacher. How dare you!"

"Ex-teacher." It was quick and to the point and sent Mamoru on a rage.

"I am still your teacher and I still control you! You will not disobey me! You hear me! You will listen to every word that I say and do as I see fit!" He was preparing to raise his hand to strike the boy when Youji put a hand on his shoulder. The small gesture worked to pull the other vampire out of his fit.

"Calm down, Brother. The boy did nothing wrong. I can sense Eiri's blood in his aura, as can Kayade." He frowned sadly.

The two vampires shared a private exchange before Mamoru sighed sadly and shoved Shuichi away from him violently.

"Tetsuya! Take the boy. You know what to do."

The redhead at the door nodded and was at Shuichi's side in the blink of an eye. Shuichi struggled against the hold he had on him, but the vampire was stronger than he was. He may have been stronger than Tetsuya on a normal day, but drugs that had been in the tranquilizer still floated through Shuichi's system and left most of his powers disabled.

"Have a nice sleep, Little One," Mamoru called just before the door closed behind them.

Shuichi growled silently beneath his breath, but obeyed the redhead when he shoved a hand in the middle of his back to get him moving again.

"Don't worry, Shu-chan. I'll take care of you. If you're lucky and Mamoru wins this battle, you won't have to die."

Shuichi snorted. "What do you mean 'if I'm lucky'? Do you not have faith in your sire?"

Tetsuya muttered something incoherent under his breath, but Shuichi didn't want to waste the time to ask him what he had said. It would have resulted in some sort of physical harm, anyway, so he didn't see the good that would come out of it.

The vampire slowed them to a stop outside a door with a coded entry. He punched the passcode in too quickly for Shuichi to read in his drugged state and pushed the boy into the room. Shuichi shivered as a numbing cold filled his soul.

Two tables were set up in the room. One was already in use. Esther was laid out on the table, dressed only in a white hospital gown. Her skin was sickly pale and her long, blonde hair surrounded her head like a brilliant halo. Heavy leather straps held her body down the table, and left Shuichi wondering why they were needed. Wires that were attached to beeping machines were attached to her temples and wrists. If it wasn't for the steady beeping that resonated from the heart monitor, Shuichi would have thought that she was dead.

"Stay."

It was only one word, but it meant everything to Shuichi. The boy cursed loudly as he felt his limbs lock into position, restricting his movement so he couldn't move. He knew that he should have been able to escape from the lock, though he didn't know the spell. The fact that the vampires were taking advantage of his weakened state made him hate them even more.

Tetsuya laughed quietly under his breath and busied himself with the machinery that surrounded the other table. He whistled quietly to himself, though the sound echoed off every wall of the room and rang in Shuichi's ears like nothing he'd ever heard.

Suddenly, a loud moan filled the room and Shuichi's eyes immediately went to Esther. She was thrashing around the table to the best of her abilities, her eyes clenched in pain and fear. Her mouth was opened in a silent scream. But, as quickly as it began, it ended and she went still on the table. The annoying beeping her heart monitor filled the room and drove Shuichi to the edge.

"The serum we gave her forces her to dream only of the terrible things that have happened to her in the past. Lucky for us, she seems to have had a rather difficult life so terrible things aren't hard for her unconscious mind to find."

Shuichi growled. "You all are sick. Why do you do this? Do you get some sort of sadistic pleasure out of torturing people?"

Tetsuya laughed while shaking his head. "No. I don't, but Mamoru is quite the sadist. He'll enjoying watching you in pain while you sleep, I guarantee it."

"Great. I get the pleasure of knowing that some guys is getting off while I'm running through a nightmare," Shuichi muttered sarcastically.

Tetsuya laughed again and started to busy himself with the machinery again. Shuichi let his eyes wander aimlessly around the room, but there was nothing to look at. He wanted to look at Esther's pitiful form on the table, but he refused to let his eyes linger.

A sudden searing pain tore up Shuichi's spine and he let out a scream. Tetsuya laughed and the sound didn't come from across the room like it should have. It was right beside Shuichi. The boy looked to his side and barely had time to notice the syringe that was stuck in the vein inside his elbow before he was overcome by darkness.

TBC…  
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**A/N: Ahhh…yet another ciffie. Sorry!!! Hehe…but that was as good a place to leave off as any. I really liked writing this chapter, especially once I was bitten by the almighty muse monster and got some inspiration. But, like I said in the opening, there really is no excuse for taking so long to update. But hey…at least it didn't take me six months like that it did that one time (can't remember which chapter it was…hehe…). Right?…

Anyway…_::hugs::_ for all who reviewed. I tried to send everyone private thank-yous. I apologize if I forgot anyone, but just know that the spontaneous reviews that I got after not posting for a while are the things that got me going again…

I apologize for any typos/grammar errors in this chapter. I didn't really edit it because I haven't had the time…

Well…until next chapter (which hopefully won't take as long to write as this one did…_::knocks on wood::_)…


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